A few days before Election Week, Papa Sununu was on Newsmax. Grinning from ear to ear, he announced that “the governor” (I guess saying saying “my son” might sound less than objective) was going to win by 12-15 points and “pull all three state-wide candidates across the finish line.”
Even though the state’s leading light had done absolutely nothing to date to help Don Bolduc, Karoline Leavitt, or Robert Burns in their races, the implication was clear: they would only win because of the Son King’s political prowess—and everyone had better remember that fact when lil’ Chris runs for President in 2024.
I didn’t get the reasoning—I mean, I got the “they’ll owe my boy” part. What I didn’t get was why Papa Sununu thought his son’s coattails would be so long. In 2020, Chris Sununu won re-election by 15 points. Who won on his coattails then? Senator Messmer? Representative Mowers? Negron? Hmm—no. I didn’t really believe the “win by 12-15 points” part either.
The 2020 election was held at the height of the pandemic. Chris Sununu was basking in the left and timid middle’s bizarre support of arbitrary closures and regulations. Two years prior, in 2018, he was supposedly ten points ahead just before election day, yet barely hung on. What if this year was more like 2018 than 2020? And lo and behold, it was, or close to.
Sununu won another term but with a much smaller margin than in 2020. But his coattails were exactly the same length as in each past election: just long enough to cover himself.
With the pandemic in the rear mirror, democrats and “independents” mostly returned to earlier voting patterns. However, a good portion of the GOP base was disillusioned with Sununu’s many royal decrees during covid, his lack of tolerance for any dissent (but only from the right), and his unreasonable vetoes of bills favored by the Republican base.
Some of the bills he vetoed sought to curb the governor’s seemingly limitless powers in a future “emergency.” Others might have helped in this election cycle, namely the earlier primary date and congressional map bills. I convinced several (not all) of these malcontents to vote for Sununu this week, as the alternative would be worse. But in a presidential primary?
Never. Not them, not me.
If Chris Sununu wants to join the many GOP candidates who have run on a “I won in a Blue State” platform, he’ll meet the same fate they did. In short, someone should tell Papa Sununu that, not only did his son not have any coattails, he may not even have a coat if he’s planning a 2024 run.