Potential GOP Candidate Backs Down, Admits Trump Commands an Unexpected Lead
Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu has decided against launching a 2024 presidential bid, he told numerous media outlets on Monday.
The ladies of ABC’s “The View” are probably more upset than Republican voters, who weren’t interested in the governor’s brand of moderate establishment politics.
Sununu resonated more with Whoopi Goldberg, Alyssa Farah Griffin and Joy Behar more than he ever did with the people who will pick the party’s nominee next year.
Right now, former President Donald Trump has a big lead in early polls.
Sununu, a regular on CNN, told the network last month he was mulling a run to take the GOP back from Trump. He teased an announcement would come soon.
Monday, he told the struggling, far-left network that he decided to stay out of the primary.
“We’ve taken the last six months to really look at things, where everything is,” he told anchor Dana Bash. “I’ve made the decision not to run for president on the Republican ticket in 2024.”
Pressed on why he is staying out of the race, he responded, “You obviously have a very large field. I think the former president, Trump, is doing much better in the polls than folks thought.”
In part citing Donald Trump, Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) says he will not run for the Republican presidential ticket in 2024:
“You obviously have a very large field. I think the former president, Trump, is doing much better in the polls than folks thought.” pic.twitter.com/FbzlDxtUYF
— The Recount (@therecount) June 5, 2023
In other words, voters are even not mildly interested in Sununu, and he knows it.
Sununu said he intends to be active in the primary and will focus on trying to take down Trump and encourage others in the party to stay out of the culture war.
“I realize there was a path without a doubt to get there, but as a non-candidate, I can be a little more unleashed. I can talk a little bit more about where we need to be as a party, about the future, bringing independents and young people onto the ticket,” Sununu later told WMUR-TV.
“Donald Trump’s the past. He’s trying to re-litigate 2020 and talk about Jan. 6 and all that sort of thing,” Sununu continued. “We need to be about the future and get those independents excited that it isn’t just a one-size-fits-all, big-government solution out of Washington.”
In a column no one needed — but Sununu felt compelled to write and submit to The Washington Post — the governor again said he felt there was a “path” to victory for him.
But his mission is so much more important, he claimed:
“I believe I can have more influence on the future of the Republican Party and the 2024 nominating process not as a candidate but as the governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state — a governor who is unafraid to speak candidly about issues, candidates and the direction of our party, untethered from the limitations of a presidential campaign and unleashed from conventional boundaries.”
He also wrote, “We need to expand beyond the culture wars that alienate independents, young voters and suburban moms.”
In reality, Sununu was never on anyone’s radar, and his views on the culture and his relationships with agencies like CNN and the Post are precisely why.
The man never stood a chance.
While Sununu will not occupy the White House come January 2025, there will presumably always be homes for him at CNN, the Post and ABC’s “The View.”
He tested the waters of a presidential run no one wanted and made plenty of friends on the left along the way.
The governor has been little more than a distraction, who will hopefully now go away so serious candidates can pitch messages conservative voters actually want to hear.
The soul of the country hangs in the balance.
Sununu might be personally turned off by seeing Republicans stand up to the left to defend ideals such as decency and civility, but the culture war is front and center for many voters.
Republicans need a nominee who will fight that war’s battles on their behalf.
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