Keller: Polls suggest a Sununu return could end Brown’s hopes for Senate seat in NH

The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller’s, not those of WBZ-TV, CBS News or Paramount, a Skydance Corporation.  

There are new developments in the race for the New Hampshire Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Jeanne Shaheen.

John Sununu could attract primary voters  

Former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown may not have the GOP primary to himself for much longer, with multiple reports of the imminent entry of former Senator John E. Sununu, who recent polling suggests could be Brown’s worst nightmare.

A UNH Survey Center/Granite State poll shows Sununu crushing Brown by 23 points among likely primary voters. Perhaps it’s more recognition of the famous family name than anything else, but Sununu, brother of former governor Chris Sununu, has a solid 50 percent favorable rating among Republicans, while Brown, the state party’s 2014 senatorial nominee, draws a measly 30 percent.

In a statement to the New Hampshire Journal, Brown said, “While John [Sununu] was supporting John Kasich in 2016, I was campaigning with Donald Trump. While John was fighting for special interests, I was serving in the first Trump administration…. Anyone who thinks that a ‘never Trump,’ corporate lobbyist who hasn’t won an election in a quarter century will resonate with today’s GOP primary voters is living in a different universe.”

Electability may be more important than loyalty  

New Hampshire Journal managing editor Michael Graham said Brown’s past criticism of Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot is a big negative for the pro-Trump party base. But Sununu, who backed Nikki Haley in the last election, has been sharply critical of Trump as well.

And expert observers say Sununu’s emergence reflects how electability may be trumping loyalty in Trump world these days. “Trump, on the one hand, may hold in his heart some grudges against Sununu,” said UNH Political Science Professor Dante Scala. “But there’s also the I think he knows: Don’t back no losers.”

Adds Graham: “The betting right now is John E. gives them the best chance to pick up a Senate seat.”

Even a few years ago, the type of criticism of Trump levied by Brown and Sununu might have been enough to get you exiled.

But with the gridlock of much of the Trump agenda, investigations – and maybe even another impeachment – sure to follow a Democratic takeover of either branch of Congress next year, Sununu’s emergence is a sign that the White House may not let pride come before a fall.