MANCHESTER, N.H. – On Wednesday, New Hampshire Democratic Party (NHDP) Chairman Ray Buckley and several local Democratic Party leaders gathered at Arms Park to announce a new initiative aiming to tie New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu with U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.
The effort, called “McConnell-Sununu Exposed,” follows the NHDP’s “Trump Guy” program during the 2020 New Hampshire Gubernatorial Election aiming to tie Sununu with former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Now, as rumors persist over whether Sununu will run against incumbent Democrat Maggie Hassan in the 2022 New Hampshire U.S. Senate Election, Buckley noted that McConnell and other national Republican leaders seek to recruit Sununu to run against Hassan, such as National Republican Senate Committee Chairman Rick Scott asking activists at the Conservative Political Action Conference to ask Sununu to run against Hassan.
“For McConnell, recruiting, cajoling, and begging Sununu to run is about power — plain and simple. Raw, special-interest-protecting, Washington-status-quo-preserving power — for Mitch, and not for New Hampshire,” said Buckley.
The press conference was the first of several events by the NHDP in the McConnell-Sununu Exposed program, with a zoom call on Sununu’s stance on the American Rescue Plan scheduled for 2 p.m. on Thursday and a stop on Friday morning in Keene with local officials from Cheshire County.
Sununu has been non-committal on whether he would run, telling WMUR’s Adam Sexton last week that a decision could come “whenever.”
In the last Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire in late June, Sununu held a 68 percent job approval rating. Sununu also held a 68 percent job approval rating in the June New Hampshire Institute of Politics poll while Hassan slipped to 43 percent.