Two former senators looking to return face steep odds and seniority shuffle 

Two Senate candidates this year are hoping to do what only a handful of others have done in the last century: return to their old jobs in the upper chamber. 

Former Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and John E. Sununu (R-N.H.) are both running to win reelection to the Senate after absences.

In Brown’s case, it’s a short absence. The Ohio Democrat was defeated in his 2024 reelection by Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio) in what has become an increasingly Republican state. Brown, who had won three terms in the Senate, was defeated as President Trump won back the White House.

Sununu has been absent from the Senate for a longer time and was in the Senate for a shorter period than Brown.

He won election to the Senate in 2002 but was defeated in his reelection bid in 2008 by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) in what was a wave election for Democrats on the back of then-President Obama’s sweeping victory. Shaheen is now retiring from the seat in a state that has grown tougher for Republican candidates to win.

Both Brown and Sununu, if they do win reelection, will face seldom-charted procedural territory upon being sworn in.

In a body where seniority matters more than almost anything, both former senators would likely return as functional first-term lawmakers to the chamber. 

It could be a strange feeling. Two years ago, Brown was the chair of the Senate Banking Committee and would have been in the running to lead two other panels, if he had chosen them, upon........

© The Hill