KINGSTON, New Hampshire — Republicans in New Hampshire won’t follow the lead of several early primary and caucus states canceling contests to help ensure President Trump wins renomination against GOP primary challengers, Gov. Chris Sununu said.
The Republican state chief executive said the first-in-the-nation primary state won’t go the way of South Carolina, which traditionally follows the Granite State, but where the state party this weekend voted to cancel its 2020 contest. Republican state committees in Nevada and Kansas are doing the same thing for planned caucuses. And Arizona Republicans are expected to consider in September scrapping its primary next year.
Party officials in those states say the moves are aimed at cost savings since Trump is an incumbent and virtually assured of renomination. But critics say the moves are thinly-veiled efforts to protect Trump from real competition for the Republican nomination. Three Republican primary challengers who have held statewide or federal office are running against Trump — former South Carolina governor and Rep. Mark Sanford, who jumped in Sunday, former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, and ex-Rep. Joe Walsh of Illinois, who served a single term in the House 2011-13.
“There are some folks who we’re talking about that, but that’s not part of the process, right?” Sununu told the Washington Examiner in an interview Saturday. “We have a fair process. It’s a primary process. I firmly believe that good primaries are good things and that even if there were a primary here, Bill Weld or whoever wants to jump in the race it’s great, because Donald Trump is going to win 95% of the vote.”
Sununu, 44, who is seeking his third two-year term, said Trump’s expected strong showing in the New Hampshire primary would help him win in fall 2020, in one of the most competitive states. New Hampshire has gone Democratic in presidential elections in 2004, though Hillary Clinton won by less than 3,000 votes of more than 743,000 cast. Republicans lost both chambers of the statehouse in 2018 and a congressional seat, while Sununu won his first reelection bid.
“There’s the economy today in New Hampshire, which is stronger than ever in large part due to the Trump tax cuts,” Sununu said. “He’s going to come out strong. He’s going to have a nice big showing, and that helps build momentum in a state like New Hampshire” that should help down-ballot Republicans.
“The president and Republicans deserve a lot of credit for that and they’re going to get a lot of credit,” Sununu said. “He’s going to win here in 2020.”
Sununu is a second-generation governor. His father, John Sununu, was governor from 1983-89 before nearly three years as White House chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush. Both are MIT-educated engineers, and the senior Sununu, 80, is still active in state politics. As New Hampshire Democrats rallied around their presidential candidates in Manchester Saturday, 30 minutes away, the pair attended an annual GOP event intended to help kick off the campaign season.
Surveying the Democratic primary field, Gov. Chris Sununu said a pair of fellow New Englanders, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, might have a home-field advantage of sorts.
“I think the folks in neighboring states will always have an advantage just because there’s a familiarity with New England. It’s not so much being a neighboring state as much it is being from New England and I think there’s a shared brotherhood if you will of folks especially on that in the Democrat Party,” he said.
Former Vice President Joe Biden, making his third run for the White House going back to 1987, does have a dedicated following, Sununu said.
“Biden has always played well here,” he said. “My sense is he’ll continue to play very well here, despite all of his numerous gaffes and silly things that he says. He’s going to still play well here.”
But Sununu sounded less than impressed with the opposing party’s lineup of candidates.
“I find it humorous they’re at their convention today and I saw behind them it said, ‘Live free, vote blue. Think about it. They’re actually telling people to live free but believe in, ‘We’re going to tax you more and believe in bigger government.’ Right? The hypocrisy is just so obvious.”
