Former Senator John E. Sununu, a scion of one of the most powerful families in New Hampshire politics, won the Republican Senate primary on Tuesday, according to The Associated Press, setting up a general election contest that could offer the party one of its best shots of picking up a seat in November.
Mr. Sununu, who was backed by President Trump and major outside groups, easily defeated Scott Brown, the former Republican senator from Massachusetts who rose to national prominence after his upset victory in a 2010 special election to fill the seat of Senator Edward M. Kennedy.
He will face Representative Chris Pappas, who won the Democratic nomination, in the general election.
“As senator, I’ll have just one job: stand up for the people of New Hampshire every single day,” Mr. Sununu said in a statement after being declared the Republican primary winner, shortly after the polls closed. “We will keep listening, keep working, and stay laser-focused on the economy, jobs, and making life more affordable.”
The candidates will battle for the open Senate seat created when Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat, announced her retirement.
Both Mr. Sununu and Mr. Brown had previously lost Senate races to Ms. Shaheen, who has served three terms. Ms. Shaheen beat Mr. Sununu in 2008. She beat Mr. Brown in 2014, after he moved to New Hampshire from Massachusetts.
Mr. Sununu, who served three terms in the U.S. House and one in the Senate, is the brother of the charismatic former Governor Chris Sununu, who is still widely popular across the state, and the son of former Governor John H. Sununu. Mr. Brown expressed frustration that some voters seemed to confuse John E. Sununu with his brother, whose eight-year term ended last year, or his father.
Mr. Sununu’s victory tees up a general election battle that could help determine which party controls the U.S. Senate. In recent weeks, Democrats in the state have been sounding the alarm that Mr. Sununu could beat Mr. Pappas, the four-term congressman from the state’s swingy First Congressional District.
A recent poll by the University of New Hampshire showed Mr. Sununu narrowly defeating Mr. Pappas in a matchup. The main Republican Senate super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, has pledged to spend $17 million in the state for the general election; the group’s Democratic counterpart, Senate Majority PAC, has announced initial plans to spend $10.2 million in television advertising.
In the lead-up to Tuesday’s primaries, Mr. Pappas released an ad that homed in on a mention of Mr. Sununu in the Epstein files — though it is unclear whether that reference was to Mr. Sununu or to his father. Mike Schrimpf, a spokesman for the Sununu campaign, called the ad “disgusting” and said that neither Mr. Sununu nor his father had ever met or communicated with Jeffrey Epstein.
Mr. Pappas also worked to connect Mr. Sununu to Mr. Trump’s tariffs, which have contributed to rising costs in New Hampshire, which shares a border with Canada.
During the primary campaign, Mr. Sununu pitched himself as laser-focused on the economy as he battled accusations from Mr. Brown that he would be beholden to Mr. Trump and the Republican Party establishment.
On Tuesday, he pledged to push for term limits, to make members of Congress pay for the full cost of their health care and to cut Congress’s pay if members vote to shut down the government.
“The New Hampshire way needs to be the American way,” he said.
Mr. Sununu, who not long ago called the president “a loser,” accepted Mr. Trump’s endorsement but has not trumpeted it.
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