MANCHESTER, N.H. – New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu recommended Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Tuesday, six weeks prior to the state’s pivotal first-in-the-nation primary.
Sununu gave the impression with Haley all the way through a marketing campaign the city corridor at a ski house in Manchester.
“This is an opportunity for New Hampshire to lead this country, for New Hampshire to say we’re not looking in the rearview mirror anymore,” Sununu mentioned.
His message for Donald Trump: “Thank you for your service, Mr. President, we’re moving on. This is New Hampshire, and we go forward.”
Joining Sununu, Haley referred to as it “about as rock solid as an endorsement as we could hope for.”
“It’s a great night in New Hampshire, I mean it doesn’t get any better than this,” she mentioned.
The endorsement, first reported through WMUR-TV, comes as Haley angles to whittle away at Donald Trump’s vast lead for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. A New Hampshire poll conducted in November through CNN and the University of New Hampshire discovered that Haley used to be in 2nd position, neatly in the back of Trump, however rather ahead of fellow applicants, together with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and previous New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
It’s unclear how Sununu’s endorsement will have an effect on the race. While he stays widespread within the state, Sununu has confronted pushback from extra conservative and libertarian-leaning factions throughout the New Hampshire Republican Party. Candidates he endorsed in remaining 12 months’s U.S. Senate race and a congressional race misplaced their primaries to applicants extra intently aligned with Trump. The nominees then misplaced to Democrats within the common election.
Sununu’s backing of Haley comes a month after Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsed DeSantis for president ahead of that state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, pronouncing he used to be very best poised for victory within the common election. Trump, in the meantime, has been recommended through South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster, who heads the fourth state at the GOP vote casting calendar.
Haley on Tuesday kicked off a three-day marketing campaign swing thru New Hampshire, the place she has campaigned regularly since launching her bid in February. Last week, she went up with the primary advertisements of a $10 million television, radio and digital buy throughout that state, in addition to Iowa, spending designed to provide the previous United Nations ambassador a bonus over DeSantis at a important second within the GOP nomination struggle.
The advertisements have referred to as on Republicans “to leave behind the chaos and drama of the past” — a connection with her common critique of the “chaos” that follows Trump — in addition to her pledge to shore up America’s army energy.
Trump, who has led the Republican box since launching his marketing campaign a 12 months in the past, stays the heavy favourite in early polls of most probably GOP citizens in New Hampshire, even supposing some polls recommend his place in the ones states isn’t rather as robust as his nationwide status.
Sununu, a common Trump critic, himself handed on getting into the 2024 presidential race, arguing in June that Republican applicants with “no path to victory must have the courage to get out” of their birthday party’s primary so as to stop Trump.
“Donald Trump does not represent the Republican Party. He might be our nominee, but he doesn’t represent the future. He’s yesterday’s news,” Sununu told The Associated Press over the summer time.
At the time, a extensive box of GOP applicants used to be angling for the birthday party’s nomination, one thing Sununu argued most effective helped Trump’s effort. Since then, the dimensions has dwindled, a consolidation that during phase has helped spice up Haley, coupled with momentum from her efficiency within the 4 candidate debates.
Trump gained New Hampshire’s 2016 GOP presidential primary with simply 35% of the vote. He went directly to lose the state to his Democratic challenger in each the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Sununu has stumped with a number of 2024 hopefuls — together with Haley, DeSantis and Christie — as they have got campaigned in his state, pronouncing he would in the long run endorse one of the 3. Elected to 4 two-year phrases as governor, Sununu instructed Fox News remaining month he would lend a hand his selected candidate “put together a ground game. I think we know how to do it pretty well here.”
Part of that on-the-ground build-out is one thing any other workforce backing Haley is anticipated to lend a hand do, too. In November, Americans for Prosperity — the political arm of the robust Koch community — formally endorsed Haley’s campaign, promising to dedicate its national coalition of activists and cash to serving to Haley defeat Trump.
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Meg Kinnard reported from Columbia, South Carolina and will also be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP