Republican John Sununu seeks to regain US Senate seat in New Hampshire

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican John Sununu announced his bid to regain the New Hampshire U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Democrat Jeanne Shaheen on Wednesday, saying he wanted to “lower the temperature” in what he described as a dysfunctional and angry Washington.

Sununu, 61, the son and brother of former New Hampshire governors, enters a Republican primary race against another former U.S. senator, Scott Brown.

In his announcement video, Sununu stressed the importance of working with people of different opinions to find solutions in governing. The message came on the 22nd day of a U.S. government shutdown that is the result of a stalemate between Republicans and Democrats in Congress over a stopgap funding bill.

Sununu held the Senate seat for one term before losing to Shaheen in 2008 in the small northeastern U.S. state, which has a sizable number of independent voters.

“It’s been a while since you elected me to serve New Hampshire and boy have things changed. Washington has never been perfect. It’s not meant to be,” Sununu said in a video message. “But now Congress just seems loud, dysfunctional, even angry.

“Somebody has to step up and lower the temperature. Somebody has to get things done.”

Sununu said his priorities in Washington would be the economy, jobs, preserving Medicare, Social Security and veterans’ benefits and tackling rising health care costs.

Brown, who represented Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate before moving to New Hampshire, announced his candidacy in June.    

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama )