Campaign

Sununu: Trump on ticket ‘hurts our Senate races, our gubernatorial races’

by Lauren Irwin - 01/23/24 9:11 AM ET

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu speaks at event for Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley at the Monadnock Center for History & Culture, Saturday, Jan. 20, 2024, in Peterborough, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) said he believes former President Trump being at the top of the GOP 2024 ticket will impede other Republicans’ chances in different elections down his state’s ballot.

“No question Trump on the ticket hurts our Senate races, our gubernatorial races,” Sununu told MSNBC’s Jen Psaki on Monday. “That’s why I love Nikki Haley so much, because she doesn’t just win, she wins the swing states; she makes it easy to win everything else.”

Sununu, who endorsed Haley in December, has been “all in” on her campaign, spending the last month campaigning on her behalf across the Granite State.

According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ‘s polling averages, Trump is currently in the lead in the New Hampshire primary with 50.6 percent support. Haley has made steady progress over the last several months thanks to Sununu’s endorsement and strong debate performances and currently sits at 36.8 percent in the state.

In Monday’s interview with the former White House press secretary, Sununu leveraged Haley’s power against President Biden. While Biden may beat out Trump in New Hampshire, polls show Haley leading the Democratic incumbent, he said.

“Again, it would be kind of a nail-biter between Trump and Biden,” the governor said. “I don’t want nail-biters. I don’t want losers. I’m tired of losing races as a Republican.”

“We should have had big wins in ’22, you know that,” Sununu continued. “And we didn’t, because Trump was still the standard-bearer of the party. He was still putting out his candidates.”

Voters in the Granite State will head to the polls Tuesday for the first-in the-nation primary, and Sununu said his “big message” to them is: “Don’t sit at home and wait to see what happens.”

“If you think Trump’s a threat to democracy, [then] you participate in democracy; you beat them at the ballot box,” Sununu said. “Don’t wait for court cases and all that other stuff to take them down. It’s never happened before.”

“We want to get as higher of a voter turnout as possible tomorrow, and if we do that, she’s got a real chance,” he added.