New Hampshire Senate race set as John Sununu to face Chris Pappas

Former Republican senator John E Sununu won New Hampshire's Senate primary and will face Democrat Chris Pappas in November. Jeanne Shaheen's retirement has redrawn the state's political battlefield and compressed the general election campaign.

In Short

• Shaheen's retirement triggered a statewide scramble across Senate and House contests
• Pappas won the Democratic Senate primary after massively outraising his rivals
• Brown attacked Sununu's family name and questioned his independence from Trump

New Hampshire voters on Tuesday picked candidates for Congress, governor and the 424-seat state Legislature, with the race to replace US Senator Jeanne Shaheen bringing several familiar names back on to the ballot. Former Republican senator John E Sununu won his party's nomination and will face Democratic Representative Chris Pappas in November.

Shaheen's decision not to seek re-election reshaped contests across the state. Pappas, who is leaving his 1st Congressional District seat after four terms, defeated four candidates in the Democratic primary for the open Senate seat. In the two congressional races, Anthony DiLorenzo won the Republican primary in the 1st District, while Lily Tang Williams won the Republican primary in the 2nd and will face Democratic Representative Maggie Goodlander, who is seeking a second term.

Sununu, who served six years in the US House and one term in the Senate before losing to Shaheen in 2008, campaigned on housing, healthcare and energy costs, accountability in Congress and constituent service. "I've been out of politics for 17 years. I'm not worried about reelection," he said at a campaign stop last month. "I don't need an appointment or a job. I don't need to make anyone happy. I need to do one thing: Stand up for the people of New Hampshire."

Brown, another former Republican senator who had also been beaten by Shaheen, was among the eight Republicans seeking the Senate nomination. Brown, who previously represented Massachusetts, won a special election in 2010 after the death of Ted Kennedy, lost in 2012, unsuccessfully challenged Shaheen in 2014 and later served as ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa during Donald Trump's first term. In a July interview, he said he was running again because New Hampshire Republicans had no representation in Congress and because, in his view, his experience as a veteran, lawmaker, ambassador and grandfather was unmatched.

Brown accused Sununu, whose father and younger brother are former governors, of relying on his name. Sununu also had Trump's backing despite having called him "a loser" in 2024, but Brown said that would make him beholden to the president and other special interests. "I'm the only truly independent candidate here who can actually vote on anything with a clear conscience and with New Hampshire's best interests at heart," Brown said.

Among voters, Jim Loomis, 83, of Bow said he had backed Brown in 2014 but not on Tuesday because "he never got traction back again". He said he still voted for Sununu even though he had been out of politics for longer. "I think what he's done for work over the years has kept him close enough to what's going on, and then with his family ties, I just think he's got a more stable base," he said.

Pappas entered the Senate race after raising twice as much money as Sununu and Brown combined and far outpacing his Democratic primary rivals, though scientist and democratic socialist Karishma Manzur had recently cut into his lead in polls. The open 1st District seat drew a crowded field. Among the Democrats were Stefany Shaheen, Shaheen's daughter and a former Portsmouth city councillor, and former candidate Maura Sullivan. Stefany Shaheen founded a business to help people with chronic medical conditions after one of her daughters was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and she is also part of a biotech initiative in New Hampshire to advance regenerative medicine. Sullivan is a former Marine and Iraq War veteran who served as an assistant secretary at the Department of Veterans Affairs under Barack Obama. She is also a vice chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party and lost to Pappas in an 11-candidate primary in 2018.

On the Republican side in the 1st District, political newcomer DiLorenzo, who owns a chain of car dealerships and had Trump's endorsement, defeated three candidates, including Hollie Noveletsky, a veteran and nurse practitioner who runs a steel fabrication company and had run for the same seat two years ago. In the 2nd District, Goodlander beat a primary challenge from Paige Beauchemin, a progressive state lawmaker and nurse. Tang Williams, the Republican nominee two years ago, won the GOP primary in her third attempt at the seat.

The primary left candidates with just eight weeks to campaign before the November 3 election, though legislation passed this year will move future New Hampshire state primaries to the second Tuesday in June. Shaheen's departure from the Senate race set off a chain of contests for the Senate and House, with Sununu and Pappas now heading to the November vote.

With PTI Inputs

- Ends