Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown says his high-stakes comeback bid for a New Hampshire Senate seat towards a member of the highly effective Sununu household reminds him of 2010, when polls and pundits counted him out in Massachusetts and he shocked the political world.
“I’m used to being the underdog,” a rejuvenated Brown mentioned in an interview, recalling the 2010 race for the late Sen. Edward Kennedy’s seat – which Brown memorably known as “the folks’s seat.”
“That’s what it seems like proper now.”
Solely this time the closely-watched marketing campaign can be a referendum on President Donald Trump, who Brown’s main opponent John E. Sununu has known as a “loser” who would deliver down the GOP – a prediction he in all probability now regrets.
After Brown’s victory within the particular 2010 election, the political realities of Massachusetts set in and three years later he misplaced his seat to Democrat Elizabeth Warren.
Clueless Washington pundits are already downplaying the 66-year-old Brown’s candidacy and labeling Sununu because the candidate with the perfect likelihood of beating Democrat Chris Pappas, conveniently skipping over Brown’s political power in a MAGA-dominated main and failing to acknowledge the importance of Brown’s political document, which incorporates his surprising 2010 upset of Democrat Martha Coakley and his close to upset of incumbent Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in New Hampshire.
“It motivates me when folks ignore me or deal with me like (expletive),” Brown mentioned. “New Hampshire goes to find out who’s the nominee, not DC. They will’t even open up a authorities, and have a foul document selecting winners and losers.”
Brown says he has acquired nonstop fundraising help since Sununu introduced his candidacy, together with in a current journey to Texas, which helped him elevate greater than $1 million.
“With out doing something, folks have been rallying round me,” mentioned Brown, who Trump tapped to be Ambassador to New Zealand and who has remained a Trump loyalist. “They’re sending me cash, they’re volunteering. It jogs my memory a lot of 2010.”
Sununu, brother of former New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, one among CNN’s favourite Republicans, is definitely generally blended up together with his extra well-liked youthful brother.
However he might find yourself being the right foil for Brown, a weak MAGA like a watered-down martini, who received’t draw a lot help from conservative voters.
“John is not any Chris Sununu and all people is aware of it,” Brown says.
Pappas already is aware of Brown has the perfect likelihood of beating him, as a result of he ignored the previous Massachusetts senator in a fundraising pitch totally about Sununu’s entrance into the race.
If Pappas was actually fearful about Sununu, he wouldn’t have elevated him within the fundraising electronic mail.
“Nationwide Republicans spent months recruiting John Sununu as a result of they know he’s their finest shot at flipping this Senate seat,” Pappas says disingenuously.
Sununu will seemingly face scrutiny within the Republican main for his document of slamming Trump, together with in a scathing article in 2024 earlier than the election.
“If he’s our nominee, we’re going to lose, and we’re going to lose dangerous,” Sununu, who himself has endorsed a sequence of presidential losers like John Kasich and Nikki Haley, mentioned of the 2024 election.
The 61-year-old Sununu additionally can be damage by the very fact he has been absent from New Hampshire politics for almost 20 years, and as a substitute has labored as a company lobbyist.
“To assume we’re going to ordain somebody due to a reputation, these days are over,” Brown added.
New Hampshire’s unpredictable voters, who elected Republican Kelly Ayotte governor and gave Democrat Kamala Harris a 3-point win over Trump in 2024, are used to having a say in nationwide politics.
And if Brown does flip the seat Republican in 2026, it might have nationwide implications, very similar to his 2010 victory. New Hampshire is one among solely a handful of states the place the GOP has an opportunity to show a blue Senate seat pink.
