By PAULA TRACY, InDepthNH.org
CONCORD – After toying with a run for president and spending most of his weekends on nationally televised talk shows touting the state’s success, Gov. Chris Sununu said Monday he is not running for the highest office in the land.
He issued the following statement after announcing on CNN that he will not seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024:
“The Republican Party is at a crossroads, and in 2024 we Republicans must nominate the most conservative candidate for president who can win in November of 2024 and get things done in 2025.
“As I have traveled the country these last few months, sharing my message of optimistic conservatism, it’s clear that voters are hungry for this change. However, I will not be seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024.”
The Republican party has a lot of candidates already who have announced and Sununu said he would decide not based on that, but on where he could do the most to benefit the Republican party.
“The path to winning was clear, but I believe I can have a greater impact influencing the future of the Republican Party and the 2024 nominating process not as a candidate, but rather as the governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state – a governor who is not afraid to speak candidly about issues, candidates, and the direction of our party moving forward.
“I cannot thank enough the countless individuals across this country who pledged their time, energy, and dollars to my efforts. Over the next few months, I will continue to travel the country to support the Republican Party up and down the ticket, bring on new voters, inspire the next generation, and help grow our party. The stakes are too high for any of us to sit on the sidelines,” Sununu said.
Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington, D-Concord, announced last Thursday she will seek the Democratic nomination for Governor, and has an extensive list of endorsements from elected leaders across the state.
And the list is growing for the only Democrat so far to enter the contest.
Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig announced she would not be seeking re-election in the Queen City and then announced she is exploring a run for governor but has not announced a candidacy.
Warmington, a Concord attorney, will be leaving the heavily Democratic District 2 on the Executive Council, opening up an important elected position that has propelled a number of individuals to the corner office, including Sununu.
“Like I said last week, I don’t care if Chris Sununu is running for governor or president. I’m running for Governor to make New Hampshire a place where everyone is free to thrive,” Warmington said Monday.
Last week, she said she has developed a lengthy list of endorsements including more than 40 current state representatives, four mayors in Concord, Somersworth, Claremont, and Laconia, a Nashua Aldermen and seven city councilors as well as three State Senators, and many former legislators and other political leaders who are squarely in her court.
Warmington said New Hampshire “can’t keep ignoring our challenges…We’ve had enough extremist battles.”
“Let’s kickstart our job training and housing construction – so our businesses can attract new workers and our young people can get a shot at the future. Let’s finally tackle the mental health crisis and the fentanyl crisis in a real way – so that families can get the help they need. And yes, let’s write Roe vs Wade into law and fund Planned Parenthood in New Hampshire.”
Sununu could announce whether he will seek an unprecedented fifth term as a Republican governor.
Sununu met with CNN’s Dana Bash in Hampton Falls for the exclusive CNN announcement saying former President Donald Trump was doing much better in the polls than many thought.
“And when I looked at where my voice can be, how can we make the Republican party bigger, the responsibility that I think I have in terms of focusing on the Republican party and ultimately, focusing on the opportunities for the country and having a little more of a candid, an unleashed voice, and getting folks to not just worry about well, is it a vote for Chris Sununu, I am not worried about that. I want more Independents on the Republican party team. I want more young voters on the Republican party team.
“I am tired of losing U.S. Senate races and governor’s races and clearly, I think I can talk a bit candidly, as folks appreciate. I think more folks within the Republican party have to have that kind of voice, that kind of emphasis on the message and making sure this is about the Republican party,” Sununu said.
Sununu may have hoped to run as a favorite son candidate in the New Hampshire Presidential Primary, but his polling numbers in New Hampshire put him well down the list of candidates seeking the presidential nomination.
By not running, and touting one of the leading candidates in the Republican presidential sweepstakes, Sununu may be putting himself in a similar position as his father, Gov. John H. Sununu, who rode his support for former President George H. W. Bush in 1988 into the position of Bush’s Chief of Staff.
Dan Balz, Washington Post reporter was on a CNN panel, and said that what this means is that the race for president in New Hampshire is more open on the Republican side.
“It does open up New Hampshire to much more of a free-for-all,” he said.