Will he or won’t he?
As of Tuesday, it still remains unclear whether New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu plays kingmaker in the first-in-the-nation Primary and endorses Ron DeSantis … or any candidate.
Sununu, appearing with DeSantis on the in-state Pulse of NH radio network, said the day with DeSantis isn’t about backing him but delivering the “message” that “New Hampshire is up for grabs.”
“If you listen to national media, you think it’s some sort of fait accompli for Donald Trump. And we just know in New Hampshire on the ground that’s not the way it works. A lot of us won’t even decide who we’re voting for until the last couple of weeks,” Sununu said.
Sununu lauded DeSantis’ “incredible record of good retail campaigning in Florida.”
“He’s bringing that to the national stage. He’s done this incredible job in Iowa. He’s spending time in New Hampshire. And look, I’m just, I try to bring the best out of everybody in terms of that, retail, retail campaigning and politics, introduce them around,” Sununu said.
“I’ve had a lot of folks come up to me in the past few months,” Sununu said, telling him they “want to meet Gov. DeSantis.”
“Well, here he is,” the Granite State Governor added.
Answering a follow-up later in the show, Sununu said there were a “couple of candidates he could endorse,” and said the “third debate is going to be really impactful” to that decision.
“If I make an endorsement, I make an endorsement. Don’t put too much stock in my endorsement,” Sununu said.
Ahead of the interview and during a previous stop with DeSantis Tuesday, Sununu suggested the Primary was wide open.
“The race is actually wide open. I think there’s three or four candidates that are clearly surging ahead. There’s six or seven, I don’t even know how many we’re counting at this point in the race,” Sununu told Stephanie Murray of The Messenger.
DeSantis has openly courted Sununu’s endorsement, saying in August on “The Pulse of New Hampshire” that he thinks Sununu “has done a great job,” believes “New Hampshire is the best-governed state in New England, and “reject(s) Donald Trump’s attacks” on Sununu.
That sweet talk came 24 hours after Sununu said he had “concern” about the DeSantis campaign, and urged him to “get on the ground” and “put people on the ground in Iowa in New Hampshire, knocking on doors.”
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