CONCORD, N.H. – A Republican running to flip a blue Senate seat in a crucial battleground state is flipping the script on the Democrats’ anti-incumbent argument.
Former Sen. John E. Sununu, the GOP Senate nominee who’s running to return to Capitol Hill after 18 years away, charges that his , Rep. Chris Pappas, has “been in Washington for 8 years and hasn’t delivered for New Hampshire.”
Sununu and Pappas are facing off in the midterm election in the battle to succeed retiring longtime Democratic Sen. in a race that’s one of roughly a dozen that will determine if Republicans hold their control of the Senate.
“He has attempted very little in Congress. He’s accomplished even less,” Sununu said in an exclusive Fox News Digital interview this week, as he blasted Pappas, a four-term congressman.
Sununu was interviewed ahead of a move by the Cook Political Report, a top nonpartisan campaign handicapper, to shift the race in New Hampshire from lean Democrat to toss-up. Earlier this month, another leading nonpartisan handicapper, Inside Elections, also changed their rating to a toss-up.
It was a rare move in favor of the Republicans amid a political cycle where the GOP is facing traditional political headwinds for the party in power in D.C.. Republicans are also confronting an extremely rough political climate fueled by persistent inflation, soaring fuel prices due to the ongoing war with Iran, and President ‘s underwater approval ratings.
So what’s Sununu’s secret sauce?
Part of it is his last name, which is a political brand in . Sununu’s father, John E. Sununu, served six years as governor before heading to Washington, D.C., as then-President George H.W. Bush’s White House chief of staff. And one of his younger brothers, Chris Sununu, recently served eight years as governor before taking a break from politics.
But also boosting Sununu, his strategy to blast Pappas as a do-nothing member of Congress during another anti-incumbent election cycle, which is a turn of the tables on the Democrats’ playbook.
“He’s been on the Transportation Committee for eight years, and New Hampshire is dead last in highway funding in New England. That hurts New Hampshire. His ineffectiveness is doing damage to the state because we’re not getting the support we need from Washington,” Sununu claimed.
While it doesn’t rank dead last in every single metric or category, New Hampshire receives some of the lowest total and per-capita levels of federal funding for roads, highways and bridges of any state in the country, according to federal and state figures.
Pappas, earlier this year, introduced the Highway Fair Share Act, a bill to increase federal funding for infrastructure and transportation projects for New Hampshire by requiring that each state receive at least 0.5% of the total federal-aid highway formula funding.
Pappas and the rest of the all-Democratic congressional delegation in June highlighted $9 million in federal funding for New Hampshire projects.
“Chris Pappas has led efforts to expand healthcare benefits for 3.5 million veterans, bring high-speed internet to towns across New Hampshire, put more money back in the pockets of working parents, and secure millions of dollars to improve and repair roads, bridges, and buildings,” Pappas Campaign Manager Rachel Petri told Fox News Digital, as she shared a long list of funding accomplishments by the congressman.
Petri said, “Chris is rated among the most effective and bipartisan lawmakers and his record stands in stark contrast to John Sununus record of voting to cut Medicare, leading efforts to privatize Social Security, and backing Donald Trumps tariffs and war with Iran.”
Sununu’s anti-incumbent argument is a bit ironic, considering
