Former Gov. Chris Sununu is passing on a run for U.S. Senate, after weeks of flirting with the prospect and strong encouragement from national Republicans, including President Donald Trump.

In an interview on “The Pulse of New Hampshire” Tuesday morning, Sununu said “I’m not going to run.”

Sununu said he had given the idea much thought but concluded, “for me and my family, it’s just not right for us.”

Sununu’s announcement is the latest development in the campaign to succeed Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, who announced last month that she is not running for reelection next year. Last week, Democratic U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas launched his candidacy. Rep. Maggie Goodlander, another Democrat who is in her first term in Congress, is also reportedly considering a run.

Among Republicans, Sununu was widely considered the party’s strongest candidate to win the seat being vacated by Shaheen.

Sununu has a history of publicly mulling a run for higher office and then abandoning the idea. In 2021, he talked several times about the prospect of running against Sen. Maggie Hassan in 2022 but never did. And he traveled widely in 2023 to test his own potential as a presidential candidate, before dropping the effort and endorsing Nikki Haley in the 2024 Republican primary.

But in the weeks since Shaheen announced she would not seek a fourth term in 2026, Sununu found himself courted by Republicans looking to pad their majority in the U.S. Senate. On Sunday, that encouragement included Trump.

"I hope he runs,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One. “I think he'll win that seat.”

On Tuesday, Sununu said he was “honored” by Trump’s support and was certain he would win if he had run. He said he believes a Republican can succeed Shaheen next year.

“We’re a bipartisan state: How about we have a bipartisan voice in D.C.?” Sununu said. “We don’t. We only have these progressive left Democrats for going on more than eight years now.”

Sununu said he still expected to be involved in politics, though from the sidelines rather than the campaign trail.

“I think I can be really effective as a non-candidate,” Sununu said. “As a non-candidate on a national stage, there’s a huge opportunity and voice to be on Good Morning America — which I’ve done — or The View or whatever it is and talk to those middle of the road voters with a bigger message about what’s happening and why it’s important to the country.”

Former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown is the only major Republican to publicly contemplate a Senate run in 2026.

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