Chris Sununu will not run for president in 2024
Rachel Schilke
Video Embed
Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) will not run for president in 2024 after months of speculation that he would enter the already-crowded Republican primary.
Sununu, a popular figure in New Hampshire and within the GOP, announced on Twitter Monday that he would not seek his party’s nomination.
ESG: WHAT IT IS AND HOW IT AFFECTS YOU, EVEN IF YOU DON’T REALIZE IT
“The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote, and I will help to ensure this does not happen,” Sununu said.
He also announced his decision in an op-ed written to the Washington Post. He said the Republican Party was on a “collision course toward electoral irrelevance without significant corrective action.”
“The path to winning was clear, but I believe I can have more influence on the future of the Republican Party and the 2024 nominating process not as a candidate but as the governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state — a governor who is unafraid to speak candidly about issues, candidates and the direction of our party, untethered from the limitations of a presidential campaign and unleashed from conventional boundaries,” the governor said.
Sununu also criticized candidates who have entered the 2024 presidential race “to further a vanity campaign,” sell books, or pursue another national office.
“Too many other candidates who have entered this race are simply running to be Trump’s vice president. That’s not leadership; that’s weakness,” Sununu said.
He warned against former President Donald Trump, who is the front-runner in the 2024 presidential GOP primary. The New Hampshire Republican echoed several other GOP members who have said if Trump is the 2024 nominee, “Republicans will lose again.”
“Just as we did in 2018, 2020 and 2022. This is indisputable, and I am not willing to let it happen without a fight,” Sununu said.
Sununu also added that he plays a “critical role” as the governor of New Hampshire and will endorse the candidate he believes has the best chance of winning. The governor did not specify which candidate he plans to endorse as of now.
“Too many candidates are afraid to confront Trump, surrendering to his attacks. I will have more credibility speaking out against Trump as a non-candidate to help move the conversation toward the future I believe the Republican Party should embrace,” he wrote.
CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Sununu said he plans to spend the next few months traveling around the United States to support the Republican Party and rally voters.
The Republican primary is heating up. Trump faces former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former Vice President Mike Pence, who filed with the Federal Election Commission for the 2024 presidential race on Monday.