LACONIA, NH — There’s been someone missing from John Sununu’s side during the Republican’s campaign to reclaim his former Senate seat: His younger brother, the popular former four-term Granite State governor, Chris.
“There’s really no need to campaign with anyone else,” John, 62, told The Post when asked why he doesn’t appear with Chris. “In New Hampshire, they want to meet the candidate. You go town to town, person to person.”
“My brother’s done lots of events,” he added. “It’s great to have him doing events that I can’t attend. You can’t be everywhere at the same time. So he’s been supportive. He’s been out on the campaign trail. He’s supporting other candidates across the ticket.”
Next week’s election might be the last chance for John Edward Sununu to maintain a dynasty that has dominated New Hampshire Republican politics since 1982, when his father, John Henry Sununu, won the first of three gubernatorial terms and kick-started a career that saw him ascend to White House chief of staff under George H.W. Bush.
The younger John Sununu spent six years in the House of Representatives before defeating then-Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen in a bitter 2002 Senate race. In the rematch six years later, Shaheen rode Barack Obama’s coattails to an easy win and has held the seat for three terms before announcing her retirement last year.
With Chris Sununu, 51, opting against what would have been a competitive Senate race in 2022, as well as a long-shot bid for president in 2024, John E. is the last Sununu standing — and he’s facing an uphill battle.
Polls have consistently shown the Republican trailing Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), whose family runs Manchester’s Puritan Backroom restaurant — which claims to have invented the chicken tender. With one week to go before election day, the RealClearPolitics average shows Sununu behind by 6.7 percentage points.
“I love the fact that he’s running,” said a Sununu supporter named Paige, who declined to give her last name, “and it keeps the Sununu name going, which I think is great because it’s such an old — I remember [John H.] Sununu in the 80s, and I’m like 60.”
Sununu family dynamics are never been far from the surface in this race. Yard signs visible across the state simply read “Sununu Senator,” prompting Pappas to accuse the GOP campaign of trying to trick undecided voters into thinking Chris is the one running.
When the two met in their first debate earlier this month, even moderator George Epstein slipped up and addressed Sununu as “Chris.”
“Look, if people thought they were voting for me, my brother would be up by 30 points,” the former governor told CNN Sunday in response to the controversy. “Come on.”
On Saturday, after a Boston Globe reporter asked John how many people confuse him with his brother, the candidate abruptly greeted a young boy: “Hey, how are you? Who am I?”
“John Sununu,” the kid responded.
“So this is a reporter from the Boston Globe, and she thinks people are confused about who I am,” Sununu gloated. “Pretty ridiculous, huh?”
While Republicans have dominated the New Hampshire legislature and governorship over the past decade, they’ve struggled to break through in federal races. The state hasn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since 2000, hasn’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 2010 and last returned a GOP congressman in 2014.
Many GOP leaders in DC were looking to Chris Sununu to break that streak in 2022, but he rebuffed their appeals to challenge Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-NH), saying at the time that he’d “rather push myself 120 miles an hour delivering wins for New Hampshire than to slow down, end up on Capitol Hill debating partisan politics without results.”
His older brother, who worked in DC during the controversial run-up to the Iraq war, the 2004 election and the 2008 financial crisis, has a more optimistic view.
“It’s not easy to get things done in the Senate, but I was always able to get things done,” he reflected. “Times were just as partisan then as they are today.”
The Senate may not have changed since Sununu left in 2009, but New Hampshire’s demographics have. The population of the state has grown by 4% between 2009 and 2025, with most of the new arrivals settling in the southern part of the state, within easy commuting range of Boston.
“Unfortunately, a lot of the liberal people that are from Massachusetts kind of migrated their way up here,” lamented Sununu supporter Steve Donaher. “They mainly live in southern New Hampshire.”
While Pappas has campaigned with Democratic stars like former Vice President Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Sununu has waged a throwback retail campaign, engaging in a series of smaller events seemingly aimed at mobilizing New Hampshire’s rural voters.
The Republican has also explicitly distanced himself from President Trump, complaining in a recent ad that while Pappas was trying to depict Sununu as the commander-in-chief’s “long-lost son,” the former senator had “never even met the man.”
“When the president’s policies are bad for New Hampshire, I’ll oppose them,” Sununu said in the same ad. “Just like I opposed the war in Iran and the trade war with Canada. That’s New Hampshire independent.”
At Laconia’s Pumpkin Festival on Saturday, Sununu mingled with festival-goers, shaking hands, taking selfies, and making small talk — receiving lots of compliments about his father and brother along the way.
“Hot dogs for Sununu,” a group of women at one stand John visited cheered as he took a photo of them.
“It’s always interesting to meet the folks that are running for political office and hear what their priorities are and how they plan to serve,” said one of the group, Nicole, who also declined to give her last name.
When asked who she was backing in the Senate race, Nicole answered: “Chris Pappas. I just feel like I’m aligned with his priorities.”
