It is Chris Sununu’s last term in the state’s corner office. The four-term governor announced Wednesday that he will not be running for reelection in 2024. 

This is not the first race Sununu has opted out of this year. He announced last month that he would not be running in the Republican presidential primary, after speculation that he’d enter the race following national media appearances. 

At the time, he said his most effective move would be to lead the Republican party from New Hampshire as governor. He promised to travel the country and endorse other Republican candidates in the race, which would include a candidate for 2024. 

But soon he’ll give up his post in New Hampshire.

It marks the end of the Sununu’s family legacy in the State House. His father served as the state’s 75th governor in 1983 for three terms.

Sununu first ran for governor in 2016, where he defeated Democratic nominee Colin Van Ostern with 48.8 percent of the vote. He was the youngest executive in the country at 42, when he took office. 

In 2020, despite pleas from Republican leaders to challenge U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan for her seat in 2022, Sununu opted to run for a fourth term as governor. He sailed to re-election, defeating Tom Sherman, a physician and state senator from Rye, with 57 percent of the vote. 

Along the campaign trail, and throughout national media appearances, Sununu has often toted New Hampshire as the “envy of the nation.” 

With a low poverty rate, commitment to public safety and personal freedom and no income or sales tax, Sununu praised his work in the state over his first six years at the helm in his inagural address this January. 

“It is not a fair fight to compare us to the 49 other states. They get jealous when we do,” he said. “We are the Live Free or Die State. We don’t need rankings to validate the New Hampshire success story.” 

While the Granite State may rank 1 out of 50 in Sununu’s eyes, it’s time for someone else to take charge, he said. 

“Public service should never be a career,” he said in an email statement to supporters on Wednesday. “The time is right for another Republican to lead our great state.”

Democrat John Lynch is the only other modern governor to serve four-terms in New Hampshire. 

In his statement, Sununu also highlighted record investments in housing and mental health during his tenure. 

Last summer, using federal funding from the American Rescue Plan Act, Sununu launched the InvestNH program. The $100 million fund provides incentives to accelerate the development of affordable housing in the state. 

In his most recent biennial budget, which he signed on June 20, $50 million was dedicated to housing, including additional funding for InvestNH.

This most recent budget passed with historic, bipartisan support in both the House and Senate. 

In 2021, though, it was a different story. In the budget, Sununu signed into law abortion restrictions after 24 weeks of pregnancy. 

“Over a decade in politics, Chris Sununu has defunded Planned Parenthood, vetoed legislation to reduce financial barriers to abortion care, signed New Hampshire’s first abortion ban in modern history into law, and refused to take any action to protect Granite Staters’ abortion rights since Roe v. Wade was overturned a year ago,” said Kayla Montgomery, the Vice President of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood New Hampshire Action Fund, in a statement following Sununu’s announcement. 

Now the race for New Hampshire’s corner office begins on the Republican side. 

Immediately after the governor’s announcement, former New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse, said he’d seek the nomination. 

Morse is absent from the State House this year, after he lost the Republican nomination for Senate to Don Bolduc, a retired U.S. Army general who built his campaign on town halls across the state. 

Sununu endorsed Morse late in the primary, to no avail. 

Another potential Republican candidate could include Frank Edelblut, the commissioner of the New Hampshire Department of Education. In 2016, he challenged Sununu in the Republican primary for governor, losing by fewer than a thousand votes. 

Former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte also noted that she will be announcing news in the coming days. 

For Democrats, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington will face off for the nomination. 

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