Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH) placed blame for a series of recent special election defeats for his party on former President Donald Trump.
Sununu, the fourth-term Republican governor who has forcefully come out against the former president’s campaign for a second stint in the White House, argued during a Sunday morning interview on Meet the Press that Trump is the reason the GOP has performed worse than anticipated in a series of recent special elections since the last presidential election.
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“It’s about the former president more than anything,” he said. “I can tell you, I’ve had school board members, Republican school board members, that have lost their seats because they felt like they had to constantly answer for being a Trump Republican and all of that,” he said. “It’s a negative brand. It puts a lot of hesitation.”
“It isn’t just the federal seats. It’s the governorships, the school boards, the congressional seats, all of them, especially here in a place like New Hampshire where we go back and forth. We’re very independent-minded. The Trump brand doesn’t work.”
There have been 38 special elections as of early last month, in which Democrats have outperformed the partisan lean of the areas where the races were held by an average of 10%, according to analysis from FiveThirtyEight. It has resulted in Democratic blowouts in areas that lean blue and closer races in areas typically more conservative.
New Hampshire held a special election in May for a state House seat, in which the Democratic candidate won by 43 points, a much larger margin than the party’s estimated 23-point edge in the district.
Sununu, who declined to run for both a fifth term as governor and launch a bid for the White House, said the GOP presidential candidates, aside from former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose campaign is centered on stopping Trump from winning the nomination, need to be tougher on Trump.
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“They have to be a little tougher on Trump. … What we saw on that debate stage last week, I think there was still a little too much kowtow into him.”
New Hampshire will be the first state to hold the Republican presidential primary next year and second to nominate after the Iowa Caucus. The Republican Iowa Caucus will be held Jan. 15, but a date for the New Hampshire primary has not been finalized yet.
