CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu announced Wednesday he is not seeking re-election in the 2024 gubernatorial race.
“Public service should never be a career, and the time is right for another Republican to lead our great state,” he wrote in an email and on Twitter.
Sununu, who has often criticized former President Donald Trump, announced in June that he would not be running for president. He is currently serving his fourth consecutive term as governor. In New Hampshire, there are no term limits and governors are re-elected every two years.
The gubernatorial race could be a top target for Democrats, especially considering Sununu’s decision not to run again. President Joe Biden won the Granite State by 7 percentage points in 2020, but Sununu won re-election in 2022 by nearly 16 points.
Even though Sununu’s name will not be on the gubernatorial ballot in 2024, New Hampshire state Rep. Tim McGough told NBC News, “He will still be tremendously influential in our party and his endorsement for candidates up and down the ballot is still probably the most coveted in New Hampshire”
The 2024 gubernatorial race in New Hampshire is already starting to shape up.
Wasting no time, former state Senate president Chuck Morse, who lost the GOP Senate primary last year, announced he is running for governor, saying in a statement, “Now that [Sununu] decided not to run for re-election, I’m announcing that I am running for Governor to build on those successes.”
Former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte teased that she would be “announcing some big news in the coming days” on Twitter.
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, who chairs the Republican Governors Association said in a statement that “the RGA is committed to ensuring the Granite State continues to have the leadership of a Republican Governor who will prioritize the health, safety and prosperity of the people of New Hampshire.”
Democrats are counting on a crowded and divisive GOP primary. Democratic Governors Association executive director Meghan Meehan-Draper called Sununu’s retirement “a massive RGA recruitment failure that will kick off a nasty, extreme and expensive Republican primary for governor — pitting one MAGA extremist against another.”
But Democrats also have a primary on their side of the aisle. Manchester Joyce Craig, who leads the state’s largest city, launched her run for New Hampshire governor earlier this month. And Cinde Warmington, a member of the state’s Executive Council, is also in the race.
