Dem
47
GOP
53
No, not that Sununu. He's running for president. His brother. It's sometimes hard to tell all these Sununus apart, though.
Chris Sununu is the former four-term governor of New Hampshire (but note, the term is 2 years in New Hampshire, so he was in only 8 years). He has a bachelors in civil and environmental engineering from MIT, attended the NYU Tisch School of the Arts studying film, and then worked in wastewater treatment and resort management before getting into politics. John Sununu, Chris' older brother, also went to MIT then got an MBA from Harvard and worked for the guy who invented the Segway before getting into politics, where he served three terms in the House and one in the Senate. How come the Sununus are so political? Maybe because Dad, who has three degrees from MIT (his Ph.D. thesis was entitled: "Flow of a High Temperature, Variable Viscosity Fluid at Low Reynolds Number"), was a three-term governor of New Hampshire. Got it? As an aside, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) also went to MIT, where he was on a team that designed solar-powered racing cars. Now he wants to ferret out pedophiles. Other MIT graduates write political blogs. It's an odd place.
In case you are curious where the name "Sununu" comes from, the Sununu family were Greek Orthodox Christians from Lebanon with some ancestors from Greece, Jerusalem, and El Salvador.
John Jr., is not going to have one of those famous "candidate quality" problems. He is thoroughly vetted and is widely known throughout the Granite State, although people could be excused if they can't keep track of which Sununu is running for which office. With Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) retiring, there is an open seat in New Hampshire and Sununu is the (almost) ideal candidate for the Republicans. He is a moderate in a swing state, the Sununu name is well known (even if people aren't sure which is which), and the Democratic candidate, Rep. Chris Pappas (D-NH), is well-known in only half the state.
Nevertheless, Sununu is far from a shoo-in. Former Massachusetts senator Scott Brown is also running for the GOP nomination on the grounds that Massachusetts is really part of Greater New Hampshire. He has also reinvented himself as a Trumpist. When Sununu entered the race, Carpetbagger Brown issued a statement saying: "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." It will be an interesting primary, to say the least. (V)