New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Sunday he's not running for the seat now held by Democrat Sen. Maggie Hassan because he doesn't see himself able to work in Washington because nothing gets done by either party.
However, the Republican governor told NBC News' "Meet the Press" that he's not thinking "right now" about a run for the White House, but he also didn't rule it out.
"Too often on both sides of the aisle, doing nothing is a win," Sununu said about his decision to stay out of the Senate race. "I don't live in that world. I can't work like that. I'm more of an executive and a manager."
However, he didn't rule out an eventual move to the nation's capital, but he does think "there just needs to be a fundamental change of philosophy on both sides of the aisle to simply start getting stuff done."
He pointed out that he's an active governor who makes daily decisions on things that are important to his state, and given that the COVID crisis is continuing, "there's still a lot of work to do here as governor."
As for running for president in 2024, Sununu conceded that he does "suppose that would be on the table, but it's nothing I'm thinking about right now."
The governor said people have asked him about a potential campaign, but he sees himself in Washington, D.C., in more of a "management aspect."
"We’ll cross that bridge, or jump off it down the road," said Sununu.
Meanwhile, Sununu rejected arguments that former President Donald Trump's call to put out primary challengers against the 13 House Republicans who voted in favor of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill will create a party-line situation for all legislation.
"We're not going down that road [because] Washington has been on that road for a good 10 years now," said Sununu. "That's the fundamental problem. If everything is a party-line test, nothing's ever going to get done."
Instead, it's time to cross the aisle, said the governor.
"I've balanced three different budgets," he said. "I've cut taxes every time. When you get the financials right, all the other opportunity flows from that and you bring folks together on common ground."
Sununu also said he's got a "decent relationship" with Trump, but the former president isn't a factor in his personal political decisions.
"People worry about what happened in ‘20," said Sununu. "People are talking about what's going to happen in ’24. Stop it. All that matters is 2022 and getting stuff done and handling inflation and workforce issues, supply chain issues."
As for Trump's role in the party, Sununu referred to him as a "Republican that lives in Florida. That's it."
"As far as New Hampshire is concerned, the only thing that matters for the party is what Republicans are doing for New Hampshire and what's our Senate and our House and our governor doing for New Hampshire," he said. "It’s not about party politics and platform, and what’s being said in the national media. It’s what we’re delivering. And if we can do that every single day, then we’re going to be successful."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.