NEWFIELDS, N.H. – After eight years in workplace, Republican Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire is in his remaining weeks steering New England’s solely swing state.
Sununu introduced final 12 months that he wouldn’t search an unprecedented fifth two-year time period as governor. New Hampshire and Vermont are the one two states within the nation to carry gubernatorial elections each two years.
And he is leaving workplace on a excessive word, together with his approval scores remaining firmly in constructive territory.
So what’s subsequent for the 50-year-old Sununu, who eight years in the past, when first elected, was the nation’s youngest governor?
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Republican Gov. Chris Sununu is interviewed by Fox Information Digital, on July 11, 2024, in Newfields, New Hampshire. (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
“I am excited to get again to the personal sector. I like companies, I like deal sourcing,” the governor mentioned in a Fox Information Digital interview. “I am undecided precisely what the personal sector goes to carry, however I believe it’ll be fairly thrilling.”
New Hampshire, a perennial swing state, will seemingly have a aggressive Senate contest in 2026 when longtime Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a former governor, is up for re-election. And Sununu is more likely to be courted by nationwide Republicans to run for the Senate.
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However Sununu reiterated what he instructed Fox Information Digital in July.
“Undoubtedly ruling out operating for the Senate in 2026. Yeah, undoubtedly not on my dance card,” he mentioned.
However the governor predicted that Republicans will “have candidate. There is not any query about it. A few totally different of us that may be focused on operating. I believe that’d be unbelievable. We have had an all-Democrat [congressional] delegation for a very long time. I believe the folks within the state… would love a special voice, would love just a few kind of change.”
Sununu, one of many extra recognizable governors nationwide because of his common appearances the previous few years on the Sunday speak reveals and cable information networks, mulled a Republican presidential nomination run earlier than asserting a 12 months and a half in the past that he would not search the White Home in 2024.
Republican Gov. Chris Sununu speaks at a information convention on Nov. 15, 2023, on the Statehouse in Harmony, New Hampshire. (Fox Information – Paul Steinhauser)
Requested if there’s one other run for workplace in his future, the governor mentioned he is “not occupied with that in any respect, excited for the personal sector. And that is all… that is in my windshield.”
However he did not solely shut the door, including, “We’ll see what political chapters write themselves down the street.”
Sununu can be succeeded as New Hampshire governor by Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte, a fellow Republican and former state lawyer common and former U.S. senator.
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The governor was a high surrogate on the marketing campaign path and on the airwaves for Ayotte, who pledged to proceed the Sununu agenda.
Requested if Ayotte’s practically 9 and half level win over former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, the Democratic Occasion gubernatorial nominee, was additionally a victory for him, Sununu mentioned, “It was a victory for New Hampshire.”
Gov-elect Kelly Ayotte and Gov. Chris Sununu meet within the Statehouse in Harmony on Nov. 7, 2024. (Workplace of New Hampshire governor)
“Kelly’s going to be phenomenal. She has that have as an lawyer common, as U.S. senator. She understands how the methods work,” Sununu emphasised. “Our transition is already going extremely easily; discussions nearly each single day about all elements of presidency, the place it is going, learn how to construct good groups and, most significantly… the alternatives to hearken to what’s taking place within the communities.”
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Requested if he’d offer recommendation to his successor, Sununu mentioned “she’ll have my cell quantity. I do not know if she’ll want it, as a result of I believe she’s going to be unbelievable on her personal, however she’ll at all times have my cell quantity.”
Sununu pointed to John Lynch and now-Sen. Maggie Hassan, his Democratic predecessors as governor, who Sununu mentioned shared their cellphone numbers with him. He famous, “We would like New Hampshire to achieve success. So, it is not simply me serving to Kelly out. It’s at all times a workforce effort. She’s going to have a bunch of people who she will lean on for any recommendation when she wants it.”
