Republican Gov. Chris Sununu confirmed Wednesday that he would not seek a fifth two-year term as New Hampshire’s chief executive next year, a long-expected announcement that nonetheless instantly turns this race into one of the cycle’s top battlegrounds.
Sununu, whose first victory in a tight 2016 race ended 12 years of Democratic control, went on to decisively win his next three campaigns. His departure gives Granite State Democrats their best chance in years to take back this post in a light blue state that hasn’t backed a Republican for president since 2000.
Multiple Republicans are also looking at running here, and former state Senate President Chuck Morse immediately confirmed he was in. Party leaders, though, may not be excited to have Morse, who served as acting governor for two days in 2017, as their standard-bearer following his 2022 campaign for the U.S. Senate. Morse, who even a supporter characterized as someone who “is not flashy, and does not have charisma,” struggled in the primary against retired Army Brig. Gen. Donald Bolduc, a Big Lie conspiracy theorist who’d called Sununu a “Chinese communist sympathizer” with a family business that “supports terrorism.”
Sununu, unsurprisingly, sided with Morse in the race to take on Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan, while Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s allies also spent a hefty $4.6 million on an ad campaign to promote Morse and attack Bolduc as a surefire loser with “crazy ideas.” Democrats, though, retaliated with an expensive ad campaign of their own tying Morse to lobbyists, a move aimed at weakening him for the general election if they couldn’t keep him from the GOP nomination. But Democrats got exactly what they wanted in the primary: Bolduc edged out Morse 37-36 two months before losing to Hassan in a 54-44 rout.
Morse is once again likely to be in for a tough primary. Former Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who Hassan unseated in a 2016 squeaker even as Sununu was flipping the governor’s office, put out a statement saying she “look[s] forward to announcing some big news in the coming days.” State education commissioner Frank Edelblut, a self-funder who lost a close primary to Sununu seven years ago, also said Wednesday he’d reveal in the next few days if he’d run to succeed his boss.
A pair of prominent Democrats, meanwhile, had already announced campaigns even before Sununu confirmed he wouldn’t be on the ballot. Cinde Warmington, who is the only Democrat on the state’s unique five-member Executive Council, launched her bid in June while Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig joined her last week. No other notable Democrats have shown any obvious interest in running, though Rep. Chris Pappas didn’t quite rule out his own campaign back in April.
This story has been updated to reflect new comments from education commissioner Frank Edelblut
