ANCA-backed Chris Pappas defeated former U.S. Senator John E. Sununu in New Hampshire on Tuesday, after a campaign that brought renewed scrutiny to the Sununu family’s financial interests in Azerbaijani mining operations tied to territory seized during the 2023 ethnic cleansing of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), reports Zartonk Media.
The Associated Press called the race for Pappas, a Democrat who has represented New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District since 2018. Sununu conceded shortly after polls closed. The seat was open because Senator Jeanne Shaheen announced her retirement this year.
The Armenian National Committee of America endorsed Pappas and mounted a multifaceted effort to challenge Sununu. New Hampshire has an estimated 3,500 to 4,000 Armenian American voters, and ANCA volunteers across the state knocked on doors, made phone calls and engaged directly with them, combining traditional grassroots organizing with a broader public advocacy campaign on the Sununu family’s business connections to Azerbaijan and what it means to profit from mining in territory Armenians were forcibly displaced from.
“We dragged Baku’s corruption out from the shadows straight into the limelight, turning their dirty money into a political liability,” said ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian. “They thought they could keep cashing in for free. Tonight, the ANCA sent them the bill.”
ANCA National Advocacy Director Gev Iskajyan credited the volunteers. “From knocking on doors to making calls and reaching voters through the press, Armenian Americans showed that grassroots advocacy can make a difference,” he said. “We brought the facts about Sununu’s Azerbaijan ties directly to New Hampshire voters and made sure their voices were heard.”
The facts came from Sununu’s own filing. In a financial disclosure submitted on May 11 and obtained by Politico, he reported a personal holding of Anglo Asian Mining stock worth up to $5 million. He also reported a stake in Sununu Holdings LLC, a New Hampshire investment company that is Anglo Asian’s second-largest shareholder with roughly 8 percent.
Sununu Holdings was founded and is managed by his brother Michael Sununu, who has sat on Anglo Asian’s board since 2020. Their father, former New Hampshire governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu, has been on the board since 2005 and holds a substantial ownership stake of his own.
Anglo Asian Mining is listed in London and operates in Azerbaijan. One of its sites is the Demirli mine, which Armenians know as Kashen, a copper and molybdenum deposit in the Martakert region of Artsakh.
Kashen was built and operated by Base Metals, part of the Armenian-owned Vallex Group, and it sat in territory that remained under Armenian control after the 2020 war. Azerbaijan granted Anglo Asian the contract area covering it under an agreement dated July 5, 2022, more than a year before Azerbaijani forces took the region.
The company’s website describes what happened next in one sentence. “The Government of Azerbaijan restored its sovereignty over Karabakh in 2023,” it says, after which the group obtained limited access to the Demirli mine and plant in 2024. What the company calls restored sovereignty was the forced displacement of the entire Armenian population of Artsakh, 120,000 people, in September 2023. Commissioning and first production at Demirli began in June 2025. Anglo Asian forecasts roughly 15,000 tonnes of copper in concentrate a year from the site starting in 2026.
The ANCA’s campaign extended beyond door-to-door outreach and voter mobilization into the state’s political press. Writing in NH Journal on July 27, Iskajyan and ANCA Programs Director Michael Tatevossian said Granite Staters “deserve straightforward answers about the Sununu family’s ties to a company whose fortunes have risen alongside Azerbaijan’s conquest of Armenian lands and displacement of Christians.” Sununu’s campaign did not dispute the holding. Spokesperson Mike Schrimpf said Sununu “has no operational role in the business whatsoever.”
The investment drew scrutiny beyond the Armenian press. E&E News reported in June that Anglo Asian had agreed to have the commodity trader Trafigura carry copper ore from its Azerbaijani operations to international markets including China.
Pappas holds a sustained A grade from the ANCA. Iskajyan and Tatevossian wrote that he has consistently supported humanitarian assistance for displaced Armenians, enforcement of Section 907 of the Freedom Support Act, which restricts U.S. assistance to Azerbaijan, accountability for those responsible for war crimes, and a stronger U.S.-Armenia partnership.
The ANCA called the result a major electoral victory for Armenian American grassroots advocacy and a significant outcome for its work translating that activism into electoral influence.
“Granite State Armenians appreciated Chris Pappas’ support during his time in the House,” said ANCA New Hampshire Advocate Jeanmarie Papelian. “We applaud his victory in the Senate race and look forward to continuing to work with him.”
