Governor DeSantis, I understand that you will visit Woke Hampshire on April 14th to headline the NHGOP’s premier fundraiser, the Amos Tuck Dinner. There are a few things about Woke Hampshire that you should know.
First, Woke Hampshire is neither a Red State nor a Purple State. It is a Blue State. The last time the GOP Presidential candidate got more than fifty percent of the vote was 1988. And since COVID it has gotten much bluer. Senator Hassan was elected in 2016 by barely more than 1,000 votes. In 2022 she was reelected by more than 55,000 votes.
Woke Hampshire has become much bluer recently for two reasons. One is that Governor Sununu was one of the more extreme COVID Governors. To borrow a phrase, he chose Fauciism over freedom. His lockdowns, mask-mandates, tacit encouragement of businesses to impose vaccine-mandates, among other things, drove Red voters to leave the State.
The other reason is that Sununu, since being elected Governor in 2016, has fully embraced and encouraged woke. In 2018, he signed a transgender bill into law, which his own Attorney General says requires schools to allow boys to compete in girls’ sports and use girls’ locker rooms. In 2021, he refused to sign a bill banning CRT until the legislature watered it down to the point that it is meaningless. His embrace of woke has made the State a magnet for Blue voters as the 2022 elections showed.
Second, you will repeatedly hear two terms, “local control” and “limited government,” used to describe Woke Hampshire’s supposedly true brand of conservatism. To paraphrase the Princess Bride, in Woke Hampshire these terms do not mean what you think they mean.
Local control is the justification given for State government turning a blind eye to the Diversity-Equity-Inclusion toxin that is pervasive in the State’s public schools. For example, just last session, the Republican-controlled House, at the behest of Governor Sununu, killed a parental rights bill. Local control is a myth. Public school districts in New Hampshire are actually run by unaccountable and woke bureaucracies that are, at best, indifferent to the remonstrations of parents at school board meetings. It appears that around two-thirds of every education dollar is spent outside the classroom to feed this bureaucracy.
Limited government is the justification given for State government doing nothing to protect people from big business pushing woke such as vaccine-mandates, CRT and DEI. Limited government is also a myth. In 2019, the Democrat-controlled legislature with the support of all but one Republican State Senator passed and the Republican Governor signed a bill codifying Obamacare into State law. Just this year every Republican State Senator voted to make Obamacare Medicaid Expansion permanent.
Woke Hampshire has no business leading off the GOP Presidential primaries because it is not a barometer of what matters to the GOP base or to Independents. Don’t let it tarnish your brand.
