Former Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said in a radio interview Tuesday morning that he’s not running for U.S. Senate in 2026, just days after President Donald Trump said he would back him.
“I’m not going to run,” Sununu told host Jack Heath on his “The Pulse of New Hampshire” radio show. “For me and my family, it’s just not right for us.”
Sununu recently met with Trump at the White House, and the president told reporters on Sunday that he fully supported the former governor and hoped he would run for the Senate seat being vacated by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen.
Just last week, Democratic Congressman Chris Pappas announced that he will run for Shaheen’s seat.
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Shaheen, 78, announced last month that she would not seek reelection next year. She has been a political force in New Hampshire for decades and climbed through the ranks of Senate leadership to serve as the top Democrat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. She likely would have been easily reelected had she sought another term.
With Sununu out of the race, former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown, who served as ambassador to New Zealand in the first Trump administration, is seen as a possible Republican contender for Shaheen’s seat. Brown challenged Shaheen unsuccessfully in 2014.
Brown praised Sununu in a post on X following the former governor’s announcement Tuesday, saying he looks forward to seeing what’s next for him “and working alongside him for New Hampshire’s future.”
.@ChrisSununu and the entire Sununu family are patriots who have made our state a better place – looking forward to seeing what’s next for him and working alongside him for New Hampshire’s future #nhpolitics 💪🇺🇸
CONCORD, N.H. – New Hampshire lawmakers have moved to reject a Republican-backed proposal to launch an impeachment inquiry into the lone Democrat on the state’s five-member Executive Council.
On Friday, a key committee of lawmakers delivered a unanimous 17-0 vote against an impeachment inquiry into Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill of Lebanon, N.H.
The vote on House Resolution 41 followed an abbreviated public hearing, after the bill’s sponsor withdrew his support for the proposal and instead asked lawmakers on the committee to recommend killing it.
The push for Liot Hill’s impeachment was led by Representative Joe Sweeney, a Salem Republican and the deputy majority leader in the New Hampshire House.
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At issue were several emails Liot Hill had sent from her official account to help a partisan law firm identify voters impacted by a new state law. The law tightened voter ID requirements for absentee ballots.
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Sweeney had previously called Liot Hill’s correspondence “political lawfare run out of a taxpayer-funded inbox.” In December, a review by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office found that Liot Hill’s conduct was not illegal and did not constitute a misuse of office, clearing the complaint against her.
Reached by the Globe on Friday, Sweeney, who was not present at the public hearing, said in a statement he preferred to let voters decide whether Liot Hill should continue to serve in the upcoming November election.
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“After reviewing the matter and hearing the discussion, I believe the appropriate course is to move forward and allow the voters and the political process to do their work,” he said.
“The purpose of filing the resolution was to ensure that the constitutional questions raised were addressed seriously and transparently,” he said, noting that he stands by the process and the decision to recommend killing the resolution.
In an interview, Liot Hill said she was pleased with the unanimous vote from the House Judiciary Committee.
“The committee vote, I think, sends the message that there was no merit to this,” she said.
The proposal now heads to the full House of Representatives, which has the power to approve the committee’s recommendation to reject it.
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Amanda Gokee can be reached at amanda.gokee@globe.com. Follow her @amanda_gokee.
A woman has been arrested in connection with the death of her baby whose body was found in a pond in Manchester, New Hampshire last year. Hepay Juma, 26, of Manchester, is now charged with reckless second-degree murder.
The New Hampshire Attorney General said Juma was arrested for “causing the death of Baby Jane “Grace” Doe, her child, under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
On March 27, 2025, the baby’s body was found floating in the water at Pine Island Park in Manchester. The baby’s death was treated as suspicious following an autopsy.
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Investigators have not released any information about how they made the arrest or how the baby died.
Hepay Juma, 26, of Manchester, NH, is charged in connection with the death of her baby.
Manchester, NH police
At the time, Manchester Police Chief Peter Marr said the baby’s death was “extremely tragic.”
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Police asked the public for help after the baby’s body was discovered. They wanted to know if anyone saw someone discarding anything in the water in the previous 14 days, or if anyone knew a pregnant woman who gave birth during that time who needed medical help.
A funeral was held for baby Grace Doe last May, and the public was invited to pay their respects. “The way she was discarded is heartbreaking, and it is important that we give her a proper farewell,” Chief Marr said last year.
The baby was named Grace by police “to celebrate the kindness extended to her by those who refuse to let her life go unrecognized.”
Juma is scheduled to be arraigned on Friday in Manchester District Court.
