Former Senator John E. Sununu (R., N.H.) is exploring a 2026 run for the seat of retiring Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the Republican told a local news outlet on Wednesday. The former one-term U.S. senator has spoken to prominent Republicans in Washington about a potential run, including Senate Majority Leader John Thune and former Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, who now runs a prominent GOP spending group that helps elect Senate Republicans.
“I’ll travel across the state, I’ll talk to people, listen, get their perspective, make sure we can build a really strong team, and I’ll make a decision by the end of next month,” he told WMUR-TV.
Republicans in Washington are excited about the prospect of making Democrats spend resources in blue-leaning states such as New Hampshire, where the Sununu family name has nearly universal name recognition and GOP operatives believe a strong candidate could flip the seat red. John E. Sununu, the son of former New Hampshire Governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, and brother of former Governor Chris Sununu (who briefly flirted with a 2026 Senate bid as well), is widely considered to be a competitive general-election candidate if he runs.
After serving three terms representing New Hampshire in Congress, he defeated Shaheen in 2002. And although he lost reelection to her in 2008 and has not served in public office since 2009, his name recognition in the state is high, and he would not be facing an incumbent this time around.
Representative Chris Pappas is the front-runner on the Democratic side. Prominent declared candidates on the Republican side include State Senator Dan Innis and former Massachusetts U.S. Senator Scott Brown, a former U.S. ambassador to New Zealand during the first Trump administration who lost to Shaheen in her 2014 Senate reelection race.
President Trump has not picked a favorite in the GOP primary.
John E. Sununu is no Trump loyalist. In 2016, he was on the national leadership team of John Kasich’s presidential campaign. And in 2024, Sununu joined his family in endorsing Nikki Haley for president and penned an op-ed calling Trump a “loser.”