Chris Sununu says he's not running for US Senate

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.

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.”