Former GOP senator running to flip key swing state seat says he wants to 'work with President Trump'

EXCLUSIVE: RYE, N.H. — It's been 15 years since Republicans won a U.S. Senate election in swing state New Hampshire.

But former Sen. John E. Sununu is confident he can break his party's losing streak.

"This is a race I know I can win," Sununu told Fox News Digital last month.

Sununu launched his 2026 GOP Senate campaign earlier this week, and on Friday explained why he's the right person to flip the seat currently held by longtime Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who's retiring after next year. The seat is heavily targeted by Republicans, who are hoping to not only defend but expand their 53-47 majority in the Senate.

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"It's the right message, the right set of issues, and also the right person," Sununu told Fox News Digital, in his first national interview after declaring his candidacy.

Sununu is a former three-term representative who defeated then-Gov. Shaheen in New Hampshire's 2002 Senate election. But the senator lost to Shaheen in their 2008 rematch.

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Shaheen announced earlier this year that she wouldn't seek re-election in next year's midterms and Republicans are working to flip the seat as they aim to not only defend but expand their Senate majority.

Now, after nearly two decades in the private sector, Sununu is returning to the campaign trail in New England's only swing state.

Sununu, in his launch video, said that nowadays "Congress just seems loud, dysfunctional, even angry," and that he wants to "return to the Senate to help calm the waters."

Asked if that's the kind of message that the Republican base wants to hear, the former senator said: "They want to win. I think they want to have someone who advocates for New Hampshire and gets things done. Someone like me, who can walk into the Oval Office and work to keep taxes low for New Hampshire, work with the administration, work with President Trump."

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Sununu's said his "priorities are, affordability, keep taxes low, give our state just a strong, clear voice in Washington," and that he's "carrying that message across the state, meeting with activists, meeting with businesses, talking to them about their needs."

"There are three things I've spent my life doing: standing up for New Hampshire, solving tough problems and working with people to get things done for New Hampshire. That's exactly what I'll do as senator," he said.

Sununu is a brand name in New Hampshire politics. The former senator's father, John H. Sununu, is a former governor who later served as chief of staff in then-President George H.W. Bush's White House. And one of his younger brothers is former Gov. Chris Sununu, who won election and re-election to four two-year terms steering the Granite State.

But Sununu won't have a glide path to the GOP nomination.

Former ambassador and former Sen. Scott Brown, who was elected and served three years in the Senate in neighboring Massachusetts, and who, as the 2014 GOP Senate nominee in New Hampshire, narrowly lost to Shaheen during her first re-election, jumped into the race in late June.

"Our campaign will have the necessary resources for the long haul, and allow me to campaign the only way I know how: relentless hard work and a focus on retail politics that Granite State voters expect," Brown said after Fox News first reported a couple of weeks ago that he hauled in roughly $1.2 million in fundraising the past three months.

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Brown has repeatedly taken aim at Sununu the past month over the former senator's lack of past support for Trump, who holds immense clout over the GOP.

Sununu served as national co-chair on the 2016 Republican presidential campaign of then-Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who declined to support Trump as the party's nominee.

And Sununu, along with then-Gov. Chris Sununu, endorsed former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the 2024 New Hampshire Republican presidential primary, as she battled Trump for the nomination.

And on the eve of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, the former senator wrote an opinion piece titled, "Donald Trump is a loser," that ran in the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state's largest daily newspaper.

Brown endorsed Trump ahead of his 2016 New Hampshire primary victory, which launched him toward the GOP presidential nomination and ultimately the White House. Brown later served as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during Trump's first term.

"Anyone who thinks that a never Trump, corporate lobbyist who hasn’t won an election in a quarter century, will resonate with today’s GOP primary voters is living in a different universe. While John was supporting John Kasich in 2016, I was campaigning with Donald Trump," Brown charged in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Asked about the criticism, Sununu said: "This race is about who is going to do the best job for New Hampshire, and I absolutely can work with the Trump administration on issues important to New Hampshire."

Brown, pointing to Sununu's past decade and a half in the private sector, argued that "while John was fighting for special interests, I was serving in the first Trump administration."

And the New Hampshire Democratic Party also blasted the former senator over his private sector tenure.

"John Sununu went to Washington almost 30 years ago, then cashed in, making millions selling out to corporations and working for Big Oil, Big Pharma, and Wall Street while the people of New Hampshire paid the price," longtime state party chair Ray Buckley argued in a statement. "The only reason Sununu wants to go back to Washington now is to sell out New Hampshire to the same corporations and special interests that have lined his pockets for years. Granite Staters won’t let him sell us out again."

Sununu, pushing back, said: "I have never lobbied any member of Congress on any issue for any business. My work has been in technology in the private sector."

"We need that background of business and private sector experience in Washington. We don't want a bunch of lawyers making all the decisions in Washington," Sununu added, in a jab at Brown, an attorney who served as dean of New England Law Boston after returning to the U.S. at the end of the Trump administration.

Trump, whose endorsement in Republican primaries is extremely influential, has remained neutral to date.

But the president may be willing to overlook Sununu's past jabs.

Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, a Trump ally and chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, announced hours after Sununu's launch that the Senate GOP's campaign arm would back the former senator's bid.

And the Senate Leadership Fund, the top super PAC supporting Senate Republicans — which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and steered by Trump world veterans — praised Sununu.

Sununu told Fox News Digital he "would certainly like to have his [Trump's] endorsement, and it would be, I think, helpful in the primary."

"But the more support and endorsements you can have, the stronger your overall campaign is going to be," he added as he listed a number of top New Hampshire Republicans who are now backing him, including Steve Stepanek, a longtime top Trump Granite State ally who chaired the president's 2016 campaign in New Hampshire and served as senior adviser on last year's campaign.

"They've all sort of joined this effort because they know I will be the best and most effective senator for the state of New Hampshire," he touted.

If he clears next September's primary, Sununu would likely face off with four-term Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas.

Pappas, who launched his Senate campaign in early April, is the clear frontrunner for his party's nomination.