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New Hampshire GOP Gov. Chris Sununu says he thanks his ‘lucky stars’ that he didn’t get ‘conned’ into a Senate bid

  • N.H. GOP Gov. Chris Sununu says he’s thankful he didn’t get “conned” into running for the Senate.
  • In an interview with Rolling Stone, he described the Senate as “the B team, compared to governors.”
  • Instead of looking toward Washington, DC, Sununu chose to run for a fourth term as governor.

Last year, many Republicans in Washington, DC, thought Chris Sununu would help them retake control of the Senate.

Sununu — who was first elected as New Hampshire’s governor in 2016 and reelected in 2018 and 2020 — was riding high in favorability among Granite State voters and would have been by far the toughest potential challenger to first-term Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan.

But Sununu passed on a Senate campaign, and in making his announcement, the governor didn’t tell Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky or National Republican Senatorial Committee chair Rick Scott of Florida beforehand.

In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, Sununu had no qualms when asked if he had any regrets about skipping a Senate run.

“Oh dear God no — are you kidding me?” the governor told reporter Kara Voght while they hiked up a mountain in his native New Hampshire. “I thank my lucky stars every day that I didn’t get conned into that nonsense.”

Sununu then explained why he was no fan of the upper chamber.

“The US Senate is the B team, compared to governors. Can you honestly tell me if we got rid of every US senator and replaced them with 100 randomly chosen, employed American adults that it would get worse?” he told the publication.

“It’s just a bubble, and you’re talking to your own echo chambers, convincing yourself of this non-reality,” he added.

To Sununu, the “non-reality” was represented by GOP ideas like the national abortion ban floated by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and the proposal from Sen. Rick Scott of Florida that was dismissed by many fellow members of his party over its controversial tax proposals.

Regarding Graham, Sununu told Rolling Stone that the senator was “so disconnected.”

And when it came to Scott’s proposal, Sununu quipped: “The one with the tax hikes in it? That’s not gonna fly.”

Sununu last month won renomination as the New Hampshire GOP gubernatorial nominee in his pursuit of a fourth term, and Hassan — who could have been his Senate opponent — will face retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc.

Bolduc, who until recently rejected former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, is largely seen as the underdog in the Senate race.

In the latest Emerson College poll, which surveyed 800 likely voters, Hassan was ahead of Bolduc by 11 percentage points (51%-40%).