While Democrats were hoping Trump was dead, readers were filling my inbox with comments and links about John Sununu running for the US Senate. For non-natives or those who have only recently waded into the putrid water of NH Politics, this is the John Sununu who lost that US Senate seat to retiring US Senator Jeanne Shaheen. She won it in 2008 and has occupied it continuously since, to our mutual detriment and the addition of roughly 28 trillion in new debt.
John Sununu is considering a run to replace Shaheen, which means he’s running, and that’s interesting. It appeared as if Scott Brown was the Country Club pick for that post. More on that in a minute.
Let me be clear. John Sununu was better than Jeanne Shaheen, but I’m loath to see another Granite State Country Club Republican in federal office in DC (assuming a Republican can win a federal office from this state). So, what are our options?
Scott Brown is probably a really lovely guy, but I sense that politically he’d be worse than John Sununu. He’s a Massachusetts Country Club Republican in New Hampshire (that’s a Democrat south or west of Virginia and across vast swaths of the Granite State grass roots), and while I am always willing to embrace someone who has repented and sworn honest ideological redemption, has either Brown or Sununu convincingly walked away from Bush/Rove Neocon RINO establishment politics?
Putting either of these guys back into that swamp is no guarantee the Senate will work harder to help drain the swamp they used to feed on.
The Other Guy
That leaves Dan Innis, and this is not an endorsement, but based on what I’ve seen since he announced, he is running as a MAGA Republican. His press releases defending President Trump are numerous, and he is saying all the right things. As it relates to redemptive status, I always pictured Dan as a moderate like Chris Sununu or his older brother John. That does not appear to be the case, though, as I said; it’s not an endorsement. The jury is still out, and time will tell. However, given who he’s sharing the primary with, separation won’t be difficult.
The question becomes, can that guy win in this state, in a mid-term where turnout is likely a fraction of a general election, against any Democrat? The Left will be motivated to take away Trump’s Republican majorities in Congress. US Senate races tend to funnel obscene amounts of money into our small state, which trickles to down-ticket races. Whatever you think of Pappas’ politics, he will have a massive war chest.
The NH State Republican Party has been, for decades, with rare instances of remission, a disaster. A shadow of a penumbra of the country club politics run by the rhetorical “Five Families.” They would rather lose than let the wrong sort of Republican win. Maybe to keep someone in DC from initiating federal investigations into the monopolistic NH Bar, the jiggered judicial system, the inside deal-making law firms, and a culture of corruption that we all get up every morning and try to fight.
Brown and Sununu are part of that in my mind. They will receive money, endorsements, and the support of the local and national machine as needed. A machine that, by the way, doesn’t object to a Democrat in office if they are better than the Republican the people nominate.
One positive: the corrupt establishment could be divided between Brown and Sununu, which benefits Innis in the primary. The RINOs divide their numbers, and Innis manages to sneak through (or is Sununu going to pretend to be pro-Trump to make sure Brown gets the nod?).
Toss Ups
The pundits may be suggesting that one or more races in the Granite State are a toss-up for 2026, but the odds are never in our favor. If the grass roots doesn’t do the work, we’ll get B-team Republicans for whom we’ll need to feign interest and enthusiasm to keep the Democrats from any majority anywhere.
A strong economy, lower taxes, more jobs, and a host of other issues will help or hinder, but no Democrat is going to help Trump clean up the swamp. It sucks, but it’s true.
Our best case is to nominate great candidates who can excite people about the general and then bully the establishment to back them so they have a chance of winning. This is, after all, the live free or die state. It’d be nice if the swamp rats in Concord would put someone else’s interests ahead of their own for a change.
But you can never count on that.
