It’s been less than two weeks since Governor Chris Sununu of New Hampshire entered the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
Now, the popular governor, who has been a staple on national cable news networks and Sunday talk shows, looks set for an unprecedented fifth term leading the northeastern battleground state.
“I haven’t made a firm decision not to run,” Sununu in an interview with Boston radio station WEEI on Friday.
“I’m not leaning toward it,” Sununu said of another run. He later added that he “will talk to the family about it and see what we do. But nobody has ever been a five-term governor in New Hampshire. I’m not here to break records, but I could.”
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Republican Gov. Chris Sununu speaks to Fox News at the New Hampshire Statehouse on May 17, 2023 in Concord, NH (Fox News)
After a hard-fought election to the New Hampshire governor’s mansion in 2016 and a single-digit re-election two years later, Sununu easily cruised to a landslide re-election in 2020 and a landslide double-digit victory last November .
“Could I win again? Sure. But it is [public] service, and someone else has to take up the mantle,” Sununu said.
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Noting that there are opportunities for him to earn a higher salary in the private sector, he noted that “I’ve got kids to put through college and all that kind of stuff.”
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire speaks to Fox News on Election Day 2022 after voting in his hometown of Newfields, NH on November 8, 2022. (Fox News)
This is not the first time Sununu has hinted that he may not run for governor again. He sparked much speculation in April when he apparently joked during an address to a regional business association that “I’m not saying he’s not running again, but you know… I’ve got to get a real job.”
After announcing earlier this month that he would not seek the White House, Sununu said he would have a decision by early summer about his political future.
Asked about his timetable, the governor told Fox News a week ago that he would have a decision “this summer. Maybe after the fourth or something.” And pointing to his wife, Valerie, and their three children, Sununu added: “I’ve got to talk to Val and the kids. I’ll find out. I really don’t know.”
For Democrats who have been unsuccessful in trying to unseat Sununu, the possibility of the governor voluntarily stepping aside could be a political gift.
“If Sununu is so eager to get a ‘real job,’ we encourage him not to waste another day or taxpayer dollar and be honest with the families of New Hampshire that he no longer cares about fixing their problems as governor ” said Izzi, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association. Levy argued in a statement.
Cinde Warmington, the only Democrat on New Hampshire’s five-member elected Executive Council, is already running. And three-term Manchester mayor Joyce Craig, who has already formed an exploratory committee, is expected to formally enter the race in the coming months.
Three Republicans have been laying the groundwork to launch campaigns if Sununu does not seek re-election.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire speaks at a donor conference hosted by the conservative group Club for Growth, March 3, 2023, in Palm Beach, Florida. (Fox News)
Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who is also the state’s attorney general, former state Senate President Chuck Morse, and Frank Edelblut, Sununu’s commissioner of education who came close to defeating Sununu in the gubernatorial primary 2016 GOP, are weighing a gubernatorial bid.
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This is not the first time Sununu’s political plans have been widely speculated.
He was heavily courted by national Republicans in the 2022 election cycle to challenge Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, Sununu’s predecessor as governor.
After months of mulling over the idea, Sununu decided against a Senate run.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
