The GOP plan to gain control of the Senate in the 2022 midterms was dealt a serious blow on Tuesday when New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, a popular Republican, announced he was eschewing a bid for the upper chamber.
New Hamphire Sen. Maggie Hassan, a Democrat, is up for re-election next year and considered one of the most vulnerable incumbents in the country; she won her 2016 race by less than 800 votes.
Republicans had pressed Sununu to challenge her. Last week, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) appeared alongside Sununu at a Republican event in Las Vegas and told the crowd, “Every person here needs to come up to Chris and say, ‘Governor is great but you need to run for Senate.’ Because this man could single-handedly retire Chuck Schumer as majority leader of the Senate.”
There was data behind Cruz’ enthusiasm. An October poll found that Sununu was running ahead of Hassan by 5 percentage points.
But Sununu said at a Tuesday press conference that Congress is a place where “too often doing nothing is considered a win.”
Instead, Sununu will seek a fourth two-year term as governor. “My responsibility is not to the gridlock and politics of Washington, it is to the citizens of New Hampshire,’’ he said.
“I’d rather push myself 120 miles an hour delivering wins for New Hampshire than to slow down, end up on Capitol Hill debating partisan politics without results. That’s why I am going to run for a fourth term,” Sununu added.
The New York Times explains:
Mr. Sununu, 47, was re-elected to a third two-year term in 2020 with 65 percent of the statewide vote. That was 20 percentage points better than what former President Donald J. Trump received in losing New Hampshire to President Biden. Unlike other Republican governors of blue states, such as Maryland or Massachusetts, Mr. Sununu supported Mr. Trump’s re-election, declaring at one point, “I’m a Trump guy through and through.”
