New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is calling it: If Donald Trump keeps polling below 40% in the state, he will not be the presidential candidate next year. While being interviewed on Fox News’ “Cavuto Live” on Saturday, Sununu said bluntly, “This can’t be our candidate, because it ain’t gonna win in November ’24.”
Show host Neil Cavuto kicked things off by asking Sununu about Trump’s polling numbers in New Hampshire, where he is currently poised to take 37% of the vote, a five-point drop from the numbers shared in April 2023. Sununu said, “When you have an incumbent president sitting under 40%, that’s a huge opportunity for everybody else.”
Sununu added that it’s likely the state’s Republican Party will “have to coalesce one or two other candidates around that ‘Other’ category” and “that 60% of the voters right now that are not with Trump here in New Hampshire, I think that number will grow even more.”
The governor also chalked up a portion of Trump’s 37% to “sympathy, because of the political attacks” against the former president.
While he admitted that he agrees with those voters about “politicization coming out of the Department of Justice” in an apparent reference to the indictments against Trump, Sununu also painted a stark picture for his fellow conservatives.
If a candidate wants to move ahead of Trump in the state’s race, Sununu said that they will have to be willing to speak badly about the former president. Several of the GOP candidates running against Trump, including former allies Nikki Haley and Mike Pence, as well as Florida Gov. Rick DeSantis, have appeared wary of speaking against their lead rival.
Sununu explained, “All of these candidates have to start hitting this guy.” As Cavuto began to speak over him, Sununu added, “You can’t run against somebody, be 20 points down, but not be willing to talk about him.”
While Cavuto credited Haley with being “pretty critical,” Sununu urged those running against Trump to speak up even more. He said, “Either you’re willing to swing, you’re willing to give the punch and take the punch and show leadership, or or you’re kowtowing.”
Sununu added that no one will be able to take Trump’s voter base away from him and laughed, “I don’t understand the politics of it, because you’re not going to get a Trump voter. Right? They’re with Trump. If the base is with Trump, the base is with Trump. He’s still going to be in the race.”
Ultimately, Sununu said that Republicans who hope to secure the nomination over Trump will need to “find your own path.” He concluded, “You gotta go through him. You can’t go around him. They tried that in ’16, they tried to avoid the controversy. Leadership takes it head-on.”
Watch the entire interview, including Gov. Sununu’s insistence that the candidates who choose to go after Trump risk “nothing” by doing so, in the video above.
