For state Republicans, Wednesday’s unity breakfast was as much about the top of ticket as down-ballot state races.
As the New Hampshire’s GOP elite sipped coffee and ate fruit, the air was thick with the tension of a contested gubernatorial race between Wilton state Rep. Frank Edelblut and Newfields Executive Councilor Chris Sununu.
The morning’s uncertainty mirrored that of the national Republican Party with Trump at its head. Unsure of who the party’s gubernatorial nominee would be, speaker after speaker instead hammered home the point of party unity up and down the ballot.
“It’s mystifying to me how folks, especially Republicans, can say they’re for Hillary Clinton,” said New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the breakfast’s keynote speaker. “In every issue that is important, we need to put aside the drama and the emotion of the primary season, and we need for the last 55 days to focus ourselves on what the real fight here is.”
Christie drew on his own experience to illustrate his point.
One of 17 seeking the Republican nomination for president this year, Christie put in long hours campaigning in New Hampshire, racking up endorsements from the Union Leader and multiple state Republicans.
Ultimately, voters did not feel the same way. Christie came in sixth in the state primary, while billionaire businessman and political outsider Donald Trump clocked a decisive win.
Speaking on Wednesday, Christie recalled that after Trump won again in South Carolina, he decided to support the frontrunner.
“Watching a candidate go from second place in Iowa, win New Hampshire two to one and win South Carolina by double digits, if any other candidate for president had done that, they would have declared the race over in South Carolina,” Christie said.
Christie was the first one of Trump’s former opponents to become a supporter – a decision he was criticized for at the time.
“Let me be clear, Donald Trump was not my first choice for president of the United States,” Christie said. “The same way that whoever your opponent is who defeated you yesterday was not your first choice for that position.”
All of the speakers at the breakfast echoed Christie’s point about the need for party unity and a winning ticket, but some embraced Trump more fully than others.
U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte praised a “strong Republican ticket up and down this ballot,” but didn’t mention Trump by name.
Instead, she focused most of her speech on Democratic challenger Gov. Maggie Hassan, who she characterized as an insider ally of powerful Senate Democrats Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer.
“There are huge differences in this race,” Ayotte said. “Who is in the best position on behalf of New Hampshire to keep us safe in a dangerous world.”
New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse was a little more vocal in his support for the Republican presidential nominee.
“I’m happy to be one of those deplorables,” Morse thundered, referencing Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s recent characterization of Trump supporters. “I encourage all of you to jump in the basket right now.”
After narrowly surviving a tough primary fight of his own, embattled U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta talked about the need for Republicans to prove to New Hampshire and the country “about why our policies are far superior” to those of the Democrats.
Guinta won his primary by just 649 votes after violating FEC campaign finance rules and being called upon to resign from colleagues, including Ayotte.
Speaking briefly toward the end of the breakfast, Guinta said “the past is in the past.”
“We’re a family and families sometimes have disagreements, have discussions and in our party, it’s called the primary,” Guinta said. “I’ve been through several. This was a tough one.”
New Hampshire GOP chairwoman Jennifer Horn closed out the breakfast borrowing the “basket” phrase from Clinton to slam the state Democrats.
“Their whole basket of Democrats are masters of division,” Horn said. “We must be the party of unity. We cannot lead if we do not win, and we cannot win if we do not stand together.”
(Ella Nilsen can be reached at 369-3322, enilsen@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @ella_nilsen.)