Graded F: John Sununu, Republican Senator from New Hampshire
He invested banking on a genocide, and now he wants his old Senate seat back.
Aram Suren Hamparian calls the New Hampshire Senate race the best example this cycle of a bad candidate running against a good one. The bad candidate, in his telling, is John Sununu, a former senator trying to return to Washington. Hamparian points to financial disclosure forms showing that Sununu, along with his brother and father, holds major investments in Anglo Asian Mining, a company with rights to mine in Artsakh (Nagorno Karabakh). Those rights only became profitable after the September 2023 ethnic cleansing that drove more than 150,000 Armenians from the region.
Hamparian frames the investment as a bet placed on genocide, made with full knowledge of the consequences. He says Sununu has been asked to sell the stocks, to apologize for buying them, and to explain why he is profiting from the displacement of an indigenous population. Sununu has done none of those things, which is why ANCA gave him an F and would give him worse if the grade existed.
The clip also covers the contrast candidate, Chris Pappas, whom Hamparian describes as a longtime friend of the Armenian American community who supports the issues ANCA cares about. Two factors give the community leverage here: roughly 4,000 Armenians live in New Hampshire, often in the greater Boston suburbs, and local voters have proven receptive to the argument that Sununu traded on his influence to profit. The Pappas campaign has sent multiple email appeals this year on the mining connection, making this ANCA’s premier race to watch on Election Day.
Transcript
Aram Suren Hamparian: The New Hampshire race is probably the best example this cycle of a really bad guy running against a really good guy. So John Sununu, a former senator from New Hampshire, lost his last election, but now he's trying to come back. His financial disclosure forms demonstrate something that his brother and his dad also have demonstrated, which is their major investors in something called Anglo Asian Mining, which has rights to mine in ethnically cleansed Artsakh. rights to mine in ethnically cleansed Artsakh. And they were only able to realize profits on those rights after the ethnic cleansing of Artsakh. They knew that very well. They made the investment essentially banking on a genocide of the indigenous population. He's been asked to sell those stocks, to apologize for their purchase, to explain why it is that he's profiting off genocide. He's done none of those things. He has earned an F. If there was a worse grade than F, he would have that grade.
Asbed Bedrossian: Ta.
Aram Suren Hamparian: good news is he's running against Chris Pappas, Congressman, incoming Congressman Chris Pappas from New Hampshire, who has been a great friend of ours for many years. We just met with him recently in Washington. We've met with him in New Hampshire as well. He's on board all of the issues that we care about. And this is really a very bright red line up in New Hampshire. We have two things going for us. Number one is that there's about 4000 Armenians in New Hampshire. the greater Boston suburbs almost at times. And on top of that, we have found that New Hampshire voters are very receptive to the idea that John Sununu has traded on his influence to profit. So this, what we talk about, the Anglo Asian Mining, it fits right into people's understanding of Sununu. In fact, the Pappas campaign has sent out multiple email appeals this year highlighting the fact that Sununu has profited from this mining operation within Azerbaijan. So that is like sort of our premier race. Definitely follow the results on Election Day.