As Dan notes, New Hampshire GOP governor Chris Sununu announced on Monday he won’t run for president:
#BREAKING: Chris Sununu announces he will NOT be running for president, telling @DanaBashCNN there's "a very large field" and candidates need to be "call[ed]…out" when they're in the single digits and splitting the non-Trump vote.
He adds many will need to quit by Christmas. pic.twitter.com/ZgwrSWHDK6
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 5, 2023
Chris Sununu on if Donald Trump's the GOP nominee: "He can't win in November…The math has shown [he] has no chance to win. He won't even win GA..His messaging doesn't translate…No one is undecided about [him]…The math doesn't add up. A vote for him is…for Joe Biden." pic.twitter.com/k87KhbyjEh
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) June 5, 2023
Sununu’s decision to sit it out has big implications for the 2024 presidential primary: In the three most recent polls of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation GOP presidential primary, Sununu was the only candidate besides Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis to crack double digits. The RCP average of New Hampshire polls shows Trump at 41 percent, DeSantis at 23 percent, and Sununu at 14.3 percent — with no one else garnering more than 4 percent of the vote.
Toppling the former president in the primary will require a challenger to score at least one early victory, and Sununu’s decision to sit out 2024 makes it much more likely that someone else can consolidate the non-Trump vote in New Hampshire.
Sununu made it clear on Monday that he hopes other Republicans will follow his lead in order to unite behind a GOP candidate who can beat Trump. “I don’t mind who gets into the field. But given where the polls are, every candidate needs to understand the responsibility of getting out, and getting out quickly, if it’s not working,” Sununu told CNN’s Dana Bash. Sununu said that low-polling candidates would need to get out of the race by “Christmas at the latest” in order to unite behind a Republican who can beat Trump.