Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is making it clear that he’ll eventually weigh in and make an endorsement in the wide-open race to succeed him.
“I’ll definitely endorse in this race… because I worked too hard just to let this seat fall by the wayside,” the governor told this reporter on Monday.
The popular Sununu announced a week ago that he wouldn’t seek an unprecedented fifth two-year term as New Hampshire governor in 2024.
Sununu, who in 2016 became the first Republican to win a New Hampshire gubernatorial election since Craig Benson in 2002, noted that “it’s a hard seat to win.”
Two Republicans are already in the race to succeed Sununu.
Former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte on Monday launched her campaign, saying she’s running to “protect our Live Free or Die way of life.”
Ayotte, who made history as New Hampshire’s first and only woman to serve as state attorney general, praised Sununu.
“Governor Sununu is an excellent leader who has worked hard to defend our Live Free or Die values and improve New Hampshire’s quality of life,” Ayotte wrote in a statement. “The battle to protect our Live Free or Die way of life must continue.”
Ayotte won election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, but narrowly lost re-election in 2016 to then-Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, by a margin of just 1,017 votes.
Former longtime state Senate President Chuck Morse declared his candidacy minutes after Sununu announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.
Morse, who came in second to retired Gen. Don Bolduc in last year’s GOP U.S. Senate primary, pointed to the conservative agenda he and Sununu helped pass over the past seven years as he told this reporter that “I think I take what I did in the Senate presidency and take it to the governor’s job.”
Frank Edelblut, Sununu’s education commissioner who came close to defeating Sununu in the 2016 GOP gubernatorial primary, is seriously considering a gubernatorial run.
Sununu was interviewed hours after Ayotte declared her candidacy.
“I’ll just speak to Kelly because she announced today. I think Kelly’s going to be a great candidate. I think she’s got amazing experience, amazing name ID. She brings the right tone and the right attitude and there’s no doubt she’s going to be a very, very strong candidate. She already has these great endorsements coming out of the gate that I think a lot of folks should look at sincerely,” the governor said. “She’s the full package right now.”
As she announced her campaign, Ayotte unveiled an extensive list of endorsements from different wings of the GOP, including former senator and governor Judd Gregg, New Hampshire House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, and Bruce Breton, a co-chair of former President Donald Trump’s 2024 White House campaign in New Hampshire.
Two Democrats have already launched campaigns for governor: Cinde Warmington, the only Democrat on New Hampshire’s five-member elected Executive Council, and three-term Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.
He passed on running for the White House, but Sununu will team up Friday with nearly the entire field of GOP presidential candidates at a major cattle call in Iowa.
Sununu is traveling to Des Moines, where he will attend the Republican Party of Iowa’s 2023 Lincoln Dinner, which is the state party’s top annual fundraising gala.
Nearly the entire field of more than a dozen Republican White House candidates — including Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Vice President Mike Pence, and entrepreneur and political commentator Vivek Ramaswamy — will speak at the dinner in the state whose caucuses kick off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
Sununu, who has indicated he will likely make an endorsement ahead of next year’s New Hampshire presidential primary, told this reporter that one of the reasons he is attending the Iowa GOP dinner is “it’s just a great opportunity to see.”
“I’m kind of looking at these candidates, not just in terms of what they say and their policies. I really believe right now it’s about who’s got the personality, who has the style, who gets people excited. It’s not just what they say but what you see and kind of the tone that they deliver and how they’ll do that with all the other candidates around them for the first time is actually quite fascinating,” Sununu explained.
Sununu is attending the dinner as a guest of Run GenZ, a non-profit group that says it is focused on “empowering and mentoring conservative trailblazers from Generation Z to pursue leadership opportunities, including public offices that allow them to work toward a more constitutionally-focused government.” The governor was last in Iowa a year ago when he attended a Run GenZ Summer Summit.
When asked if he will use Friday’s dinner as a screen test for a likely endorsement, Sununu said, “The screen test, if you will, is when they come on the campaign trail with me. They come to some of my Super 603 Days, or I go to events with them and I kind of take them around. I’ll be doing a lot of that this fall with many of the candidates.
“The best screen test is when they’re with me and my constituents and how they handle it,” the governor said. “They have to earn their stripes with me on my home turf.”
Then-New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie placed all his chips on New Hampshire as he ran for the Republican presidential nomination in the 2016 cycle. But his campaign crashed and burned after a disappointing and distant sixth-place finish in New Hampshire, far behind Trump, who crushed the competition in the primary, boosting him toward the nomination and eventually the White House.
As he runs a second time for the White House, Christie told this reporter on Monday that “New Hampshire and South Carolina will be our main focus. And that’s what we’ve intended right from the beginning. You’ll see that’s what our travel reflects. I’m sure we’ll go to Iowa at some point, probably for a debate. But I’m going to spend my time here in New Hampshire and down in South Carolina.”
Trump remains the commanding front-runner in the latest polls in the GOP nomination race, with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis a distant second, and Christie and the rest of the field in the single digits.
Pointing to early next year, Christie said “my guess is that by the time we get to voting here in New Hampshire, you’ll have seven or less in this field.”
And comparing this primary battle to the 2016 edition, he said “the whole tone of it is different. The focus will be different.”
Asked what he needs to do this time around that he failed to do in 2016, Christie answered “if you want an absolutely concise answer, what I need that I didn’t get last time is more votes and I intend to get them.”
Former United Nations ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s been spending plenty of time in New Hampshire, Iowa, and her home state since launching her GOP presidential campaign in February.
“For us it’s about building trust. It’s about building relationships. It’s about earning support,” Haley told this reporter on Wednesday.
Noting that many of her rivals have shelled out big bucks to run ads, Haley said “all the other guys have spent millions of dollars….We haven’t spent any because it’s not the time. This is the time you build the relationships.”
Pointing to the start next month of the Republican presidential nomination debates, Haley emphasized that “once the debate starts, that’s when you go and create the traction and get the movement out there. It’s ‘slow and steady wins the race.’ It’s relationships. It’s trust. It’s answering every question. It’s touching every hand. Get used to this face because I’m going to keep on coming back to New Hampshire.”