The Epstein files are creating headaches for the Sununus and Shaheens in New Hampshire

A New Hampshire magnate with ties to power players in both parties has appeared in successive batches of the Epstein files, roiling politics in his home state and threatening its two most influential political dynasties.
Documents recently released by the Department of Justice suggest that entrepreneur Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway and other devices, kept in contact with Jeffrey Epstein long after Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008, with emails indicating he visited the disgraced financier’s Caribbean island in 2013. Kamen has not been accused of wrongdoing and did not respond to requests for comment through his companies Monday.
The recently released files indicate a closer relationship between the two than was previously known. The disclosures have prompted Kamen’s organizations to launch investigations into their ties. And the situation has ratcheted up scrutiny of the New Hampshire politicians who have worked with him, received campaign contributions from him or helped his organizations secure tens of millions in federal funds.
That includes members of the Shaheen and Sununu families, the best-known and most powerful clans in the state’s Democratic and Republican parties. Both have scions running for Congress this year: House candidate Stefany Shaheen, the daughter of retiring Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and former Sen. John E. Sununu (R-N.H.), the son of a former governor, who is seeking to return to the Senate.
They now face Epstein-fueled attacks from their lower-polling rivals.
“Anywhere Epstein pops up these days, it’ll become a campaign issue,” said Ryan Williams, a GOP strategist who has worked with Sununu and his father. “And there are certainly politicians who have worked with Kamen in New Hampshire, taken his money and associated with him. And those who did will have to answer for it.”
Kamen is a New Hampshire institution and local celebrity — often described as a quirky one — in a state that has few big-name figures but exerts a powerful hold on the presidential nominating process. The pioneering inventor and entrepreneur who developed the first portable insulin pump and a wheelchair that can climb stairs, Kamen is also widely credited for driving the transformation of Manchester’s old mill district into a technological and health care hub. He was lauded as a “hero” for helping secure 91,000 pounds of protective equipment for first responders and health care workers at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic when such resources were scarce.
Kamen has donated roughly $90,000 to federal candidates and campaign committees on both sides of the aisle over the past four decades, according to federal campaign finance filings. That includes over $7,000 apiece to Sununu, Sen. Shaheen and Kelly Ayotte, the former senator who’s up for reelection as governor this year. Kamen has not made any federal campaign contributions this election cycle, per federal reports.
He’s hosted a raft of high-profile politicians at his businesses and his Bedford home over the years, from Ayotte to then-President George W. Bush. He traveled to Dubai with Sununu’s younger brother, then-Gov. Chris Sununu, in 2019 during a trip in which the two attended the World Government Summit. Chris Sununu, through Airlines for America, the lobbying firm he now leads, did not respond to a request for comment.
Those ties, once promoted in press releases and splashed across social media, have turned into a political liability after successive document drops showed deeper connections between Kamen and Epstein.
Photos released in December show Kamen socializing with Epstein in a tropical location and riding a Segway with Ghislaine Maxwell, the Epstein associate who was convicted of sex trafficking in 2021. Documents released on Jan. 30 showed Kamen made plans to visit Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2013. At the time, assistants sent emails discussing “which flight Dean prefers the girls to be on.” Days later, he wrote to Epstein: “thank you for hosting an incredible visit to [sic] a magical place. It really is almost unbelievable.”
Kamen did not respond to questions from POLITICO about his association with Epstein, including whether he visited Little Saint James. He previously described having “limited interactions” with Epstein in statements to other media outlets and has denied knowledge of his “horrific actions” beyond what he learned from news reports. He told The Boston Globe that Epstein had reached out to him about becoming involved in international development projects but after initial meetings, “it became apparent that his only interest was self-promotion” and “I avoided further meetings.” He did not respond to The Globe’s inquiry about the reference to “the girls.” After the latest tranche of documents was released, he recused himself from board activities of at least four companies he’s involved with as they engage outside law firms to conduct independent investigations into the disclosures.
Williams, the Republican strategist, said “the Epstein episode is the first real blemish that’s marked his reputation in the state, and it’s an extremely hot issue right now.”
EPSTEIN FILES AS A CAMPAIGN CUDGEL
Stefany Shaheen, who is running for New Hampshire’s open House seat and served as chief strategy officer for Kamen’s Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute from September 2018 until last month, is facing intensifying scrutiny over her dealings with Kamen. She has posted photos of her with Kamen on social media over the years, one of the two of them in the cockpit of a plane that was uploaded to LinkedIn seven years ago, and another from a gala for Type 1 Diabetes research last April where she was an honoree. Her campaign said the former was taken during a flight to Washington with others affiliated with ARMI for an American Society Of Mechanical Engineers meeting on June 14, 2018, where Kamen spoke.
She is now facing calls from two of her Democratic primary rivals to publicly condemn Kamen. One of them, Christian Urrutia, has also accused her of potentially helping Kamen craft his statements in response to the files, which she has denied.
“There’s certainly an element of transparency. I think there is a fundamental question of: Do we want our members of Congress and our senators to have these types of relationships?” said Urrutia, who also asked why Sen. Shaheen did not disclose her daughter’s role at ARMI when securing a $1.2 million earmark for the company in 2023. A spokesperson for the senator said that her daughter was paid through non-federal funding sources and that her office was advised by Senate Ethics Committee staff that the request for funding for ARMI did not violate ethics rules.
A Republican running for the seat, state Rep. Brian Cole, has called on the younger Shaheen to drop out: “Until Stefany Shaheen provides full and honest answers about her association with Dean Kamen and ARMI, she should end her campaign,” he said in a statement.
Sununu, who is running to reclaim the Senate seat he lost to Shaheen’s mother in 2008, has faced questions over a possible reference to him in a 2010 email between Epstein and Boris Nikolic, a former Bill Gates adviser. In the email, Epstein emailed Nikolic that “john sununu, has good stories,” but did not provide any additional details. It’s unclear what he meant or whether he was referring to the senator or his father, former governor and White House chief of staff John H. Sununu.
The younger Sununu was a director of operations at Teletrol Systems, one of Kamen’s companies, in the 1990s before he was elected to Congress.
His GOP primary rival, former Sen. Scott Brown, has seized on the email to attack the Sununu family’s “‘insider’ ties” as he attempts to gain traction in a race where the Republican establishment and the president have lined up behind his opponent. Brown said on a local podcast that Sununu “needs to fully explain why” his surname is mentioned in the files. Brown added on X that voters “shouldn’t have to guess who, or which one of their representatives were associated, or what ‘stories’ are being referenced in federal documents.”
The Shaheen and Sununu campaigns have sought to dismiss the criticism from their opponents.
Shaheen said in a statement that she “never advised Dean Kamen on these matters” and that the “extent of my knowledge” about his and Epstein’s relationship is what has been publicly reported. Harrell Kirstein, a spokesperson for her campaign, dismissed the criticism as “desperate political attacks — flat out lies — that ignore basic facts.”
Both Shaheens said they supported outside investigations of Kamen.
Sen. Shaheen said in a statement that Kamen “was right to step back” from his organizations, and that it was appropriate for them “to conduct independent reviews to fully understand his connection to Epstein and take any action merited by the findings of those reviews.”
Stefany Shaheen is the polling leader in the Democratic primary for New Hampshire’s blue-leaning 1st Congressional District, a position operatives in both parties attribute in large part to name recognition. A University of New Hampshire survey from January showed her with 33 percent support, and no other candidate with more than 10 percent, with 39 percent of likely primary voters undecided.
Sununu led Brown by 23 percentage points in the same poll, with 26 percent of likely GOP primary voters undecided. They both trail Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas in hypothetical general-election matchups.
Mike Schrimpf, a spokesperson for Sununu’s campaign, said in a statement that “John had no knowledge whatsoever of any relationship between Dean Kamen and Epstein” and believes the latter “was a despicable human being.” Neither Sununu or his father “have ever met or communicated in any way with Boris Nikolic, Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell.”
He went on to attack Shaheen and Pappas — who, along with other members of the all-Democratic congressional delegation, had touted federal funding for ARMI before the Kamen scandal broke — over their connections to the entrepreneur: “Unlike Chris Pappas who celebrated federal funding for Kamen’s ARMI, or Stefany Shaheen who worked for him last week, John never advocated or requested funding for any of Kamen’s ventures,” Schrimpf said.
Gates MacPherson, a spokesperson for Pappas’ campaign, said in a statement that the congressman “believes Dean Kamen’s relationship with Epstein is deeply troubling and must be independently investigated, and all federal contractors and grant awardees should be held to the highest possible standards, including ARMI and FIRST.”
In the governor’s race, Democrats are preparing to attack Ayotte over Kamen’s past contributions to her campaigns and his appearance in an ad for her 2016 Senate reelection campaign. Ayotte has yet to draw a serious opponent in her bid for a second term. Representatives for the governor did not respond to an email to her official and campaign inboxes seeking comment.