MANCHESTER, NH – It was a funny moment in the presidential campaign that illustrates how influential a Republican role was Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire is playing in the race for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.
As presented by the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley At a New Hampshire GOP summer cookout and fundraiser this week, Sununu repeatedly praised the former two-term South Carolina governor, who later served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations the administration of former President Donald Trump.
But Sununu, who announced just weeks ago that he would move on to his own presidential bid, added that he is not “yet” endorsing anyone in the state’s presidential primary, stressing that “we have a long way to go” until the State Nomination Competition 2024.
After exchanging a hug, Haley began her remarks to the crowd by saying, “You have a great governor.”
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With a joke that drew a lot of laughter, he said, “Governor, I’m very concerned about your health. What I’m thinking is, I don’t want you to get too stressed. I don’t want you to go out and do too much. So I think the best is, go ahead and vouch for me now.”
Haley was joking about Sununu’s health, but not in hopes of garnering support from the popular governor in the state that is holding the first primary and second general contest on the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
She and five other candidates are former or current governors who have worked alongside Sununu. They and the other six Republican presidential candidates who are also challenging Trump for the GOP nomination have been calling Sununu or meeting with him when they campaign in New Hampshire, asking him for advice and suggestions, and perhaps even for his support in the future.
“He’s a great friend. He’s a great governor and he’s going to be an important person in this primary. And I think he has a lot of knowledge about the people of New Hampshire, and I think he has a lot of knowledge of what it takes to win here, so I think it’s going to be incredibly important,” Haley told Fox News on Fox News. the NHGOP kitchen.
Besides Haley, the past few weeks former Vice President Mike Pence, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, ex-CIA spy and former Texas Rep. Will Hurd and high-profile vaccine skeptic and environmental advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is the president’s main challenger Biden for the Democratic nomination, they have met. with Sununu. And three other candidates, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and former governors Chris Christie of New Jersey and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, met in person with Sununu earlier this year.
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“The governor. Sununu’s importance in the New Hampshire primary cannot be understated. Their support and having their general be an ambassador for the primary will be critically important in 2024,” New Hampshire Institute of Politics Executive Director Neil Levesque told Fox News.
Sununu is more modest.
“I try to be open and helpful with everybody. So I don’t think I’m the go-to guy. I think everybody knows I’m willing to help and give good advice and guidance in terms of what they’re doing, next steps, who find me, where to go, how to approach the state.”
Sununu, who is in his fourth two-year term leading New Hampshire, added in a Fox Digital interview: “I know how to win the state and be successful here, and I’m happy to share any advice I can with all the different .candidates”.
“They’re asking for good advice. They’re asking good questions. How they should approach the state. How they should approach the voters,” Sununu said of the Republican presidential candidates. “I’m very happy to give all the advice we can. I think we know how to do politics and retail management here and how that translates to the electorate.”
And he’s giving the candidates high marks right now, saying, “I think so far, they’re doing it the right way. They’re going to backyard barbecues and going to diners to meet people on citizens’ terms, not candidates, which is what I think really sets New Hampshire apart from everyone else.
Unlike Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa, another popular chief executive who is playing a similar role in the 2024 GOP nomination race in the first caucus state, Sununu has said he is open to making an endorsement before the primary .
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Asked about his schedule, the governor said, “We haven’t gotten to a debate yet. We’re seeing who all the candidates are. A lot of them are still getting into the race last week. There’s still a lot to play for terms of endorsements and where it’s going.”
A person who Sununu does not endorse, and who does not seek advice from the governor, is former president Donald Trumpwho is the frontrunner right now in the Republican race as he makes his third consecutive run at the White House.
Sununu has been highly critical of Trump since the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters who tried unsuccessfully to block congressional certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory. Sununu has repeatedly predicted that the former president has no chance of regaining his old job in 2024.
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As for his own political future, Sununu has yet to announce whether he will seek an unprecedented one fifth term as governor.
Asked about his timetable for deciding on a 2024 re-election bid, the governor pointed to his wife, Valerie, and their three children and told Fox News: “I’ll be talking to Valerie and the kids and stuff during the vacation week and I’ll probably come. to some kind of firm, public decision sometime in July, August, something like that.”
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter based in New Hampshire.
