In New Hampshire's state primary Tuesday, two former Republican U.S. senators eyeing a return to Washington will compete for a seat they've both sought previously with mixed results. In the Democratic primary for the same U.S. Senate seat, a four-term congressman faces an increasingly competitive challenge on his left flank from a democratic socialist candidate. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.

Voters will also select nominees for U.S. House, governor and other state offices.

The race to replace retiring two-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen is one of a handful across the country that could determine control of the U.S. Senate for the second half of President Donald Trump's final term. Democrats need a net gain of four seats to retake the chamber, and keeping New Hampshire in their column is a key part of that effort.

In the Republican primary, former U.S. Sens. John Sununu and Scott Brown are among eight candidates seeking the nomination. Sununu won the seat when it was last open in 2002, defeating then-Gov. Shaheen, but she ousted him in 2008 after one term. Brown was elected in Massachusetts in 2010 to serve out the remaining three years of the late Democratic U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy's final term. After his defeat for a full term in 2012, Brown moved to New Hampshire and challenged Shaheen in 2014, losing narrowly.

Brown endorsed Trump just ahead of his 2016 New Hampshire presidential primary victory. Trump later appointed Brown to serve as U.S. ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa in his first term. Trump is now backing Sununu over Brown in the primary, despite an ongoing war of words he's had with the Sununu family over the years.

Sununu endorsed Trump's rival Nikki Haley for president in 2024 and penned an op-ed that year under the headline "Trump is a loser." That echoed a critique Sununu's father, former White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, made of Trump during the 2016 presidential primaries, when he told ABC News that Trump had been "a loser all his life." Trump called the elder Sununu "a main loser."

The former senator's brother, former Gov. Chris Sununu, also endorsed Haley in 2024 and once called Trump "(expletive) crazy." Chris Sununu was one of the president's supporters.

This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing Associated Press.