A Big New Hampshire Reckoning for Haley, Sununu and the State

PETERBOROUGH, New Hampshire — It was toward the end of Nikki Haley’s press availability Saturday, and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu was attempting to model a happy warrior ethos for Haley.

I had asked Haley if she had enjoyed the process of running for president — against Donald Trump, no less — and she hadn’t evinced much joy in her answer. She talked about her dedication, “grind it out every day,” and explained that, while she was passionate about running, you have to endure a crucible; “A massive sacrifice, personally, physically, emotionally,” as Haley put it on what was her 52nd birthday.

Soon after, Sununu interjected.

“Donald Trump is lucky if he has the energy to do two events a day, she’s out there doing 10 events,” the governor pointed out, and “she loves it because she loves this country.”

Sununu wasn’t done.

“That energy — event after event after event — shows love of country, passion for making the entire country better, galvanizing everyone, and that’s what’s getting folks excited.”

Haley didn’t take the hint from the man who calls her his “new best friend.”

In fact, it was almost as though she was attempting to play bad cop to her partner’s good cop. Because she then cut back in and scolded the assembled reporters. “I’ll end with this — y’all have a responsibility, too,” Haley said. “Believe it or not, the responsibility is not just showing what poll numbers are.”

There was a bit more, about the need to hold Trump to account. Yet as I walked into a light afternoon snow, I thought back to other trips to this Rockwellian village, a place John McCain loved so much he insisted on coming back in the final hours of his doomed presidential bid for one last town hall. My nostalgia trip ended quickly, though, because suddenly, there was Haley again. She was leaning out the right backseat window of her Suburban and suddenly sounding downright joyful.

“That is amazing!” she exclaimed. She was gazing ahead at Sununu, who was at the wheel of his red 1966 Mustang convertible.

“I hope your right foot is ready because you’re going to have some fun with this thing,” the New Hampshire governor shot back, assuring her a turn on the pedals before speeding away solo, his security detail in other vehicles.

Bounding like a well-caffeinated labradoodle through lobster pounds, country stores and hotel ballrooms divided to make crowds seem larger, Sununu is living vicariously through Haley, trying to help her spring an upset Tuesday, but also seeming to try his hand at the campaign he took a pass on last year.

“In our family, we have two things that we pay attention to: One, whatever you do, do it the right way,” John Sununu, the governor’s father, told me. “And number two: Only do what you’re having fun doing.”

The younger Sununu, 49, is not actually the candidate, of course. So he’s free to roar through the snow in his Mustang, act as a surrogate, morale booster, New Hampshire tutor, and, being a feisty Sununu in good standing, reliable attack dog. This labradoodle brings attitude and energy.

Yet as much as Haley’s hopes ride on a strong New Hampshire showing — she can justify a final charge in South Carolina if she avoids a blowout here — there’s lots on the line for Sununu, too.

His decision to get behind the former South Carolina governor, who was on her way to the United Nations when Sununu took office in 2017, is no small bet.

Yes, it has already paid off by helping her winnow the field. Sununu’s intervention undermined the governors he did serve with, Ron DeSantis and particularly Chris Christie, more on that later.

However, by endorsing Haley last month and appearing with her at most every stop, Sununu is spending every bit of political capital he has, wagering that he’s popular enough with Republicans and independents alike here that his candidate can duel with a former president and movement leader.

He and Haley spent election eve in Salem, Sununu’s hometown, he’s been a ubiquitous presence on local and national television for her and is pictured next to Haley, sporting his “Ski NH” North Face, in full-page ads in New Hampshire’s newspapers: “Endorsed By Governor Chris Sununu.”

Tuesday also may be the last stand for the House of Sununu, the last elected member of which is leaving office after this year. Or it could represent the moment Chris Sununu vaulted past his older brother, a former senator, and into the realm of his father, a former New Hampshire governor turned kingmaker who parlayed his support for George H.W. Bush into becoming 41’s chief of staff.

The stakes are bigger than friendly family competition, though. Wrapped up in Sununu’s endorsement is another gamble, that the traditional New Hampshire style of campaigning still matters and there will be a penalty for anybody, celebrity or not, who refuses to abide by what the state’s voters purportedly demand.

There wasn’t in 2016. Trump did what he’s doing now, skipping the house parties and town halls, and only flying in for rallies on his way to a 20-point rout.

Sununu, though, has his eye on future primaries. And if Haley can close strong after being the only candidate to barnstorm the state, well, the New Hampshire way lives on. Add to that the fact that prominent state Democrats — fearing embarrassment after President Biden refused to put his name on the ballot — have had to mount a write-in campaign for the president and Sununu believes both parties will be back in 2028.

“Alive and well,” he said of the primary’s future, adding of Democrats: “They will never dare try to skip this state again because they’ve been absolutely embarrassed with the way they’ve handled it. They don’t want to have to go through this again.”

The elder Sununu was equally confident and flashed the family’s trademark bravado.

“Let me point out something which nobody seems to talk about,” he said, his swagger undiminished at age 84. “Iowa has a population of two-and-a-half to three times New Hampshire. … The Iowa caucus had a little over 100,000 Republican people go to the caucus. New Hampshire is going to have between 320,000 and 340,000 votes cast in the Republican primary.”

His walk-off: “You don’t get that turnout by flying in and out.”

I’m more skeptical, at least about whether the New Hampshire primary as we know it (knew it?) lives on.

For starters — and this may mean I’ll never have a chicken finger lunch at the Puritan Backroom again — the old ways were starting to fade before Trump came along. The dutiful Yankee voter — invariably described as “flinty” and ideally found amid “the snows of New Hampshire” — wasn’t immune to the influences of cable news and the internet before 2016. The early states were already becoming picturesque soundstages.

Then Trump came along and proved that the so-called rules didn’t apply to somebody already famous, at least if they had a compelling message. He still draws large crowds here, though smaller than he did as president, and Haley’s attendance is dramatically smaller than even some losing Democrats commanded in 2020.

Just as ominous for the state’s guardians is the prospect that Democrats may repeat what Biden attempted this time and begin their primary in a more racially diverse state.

That could be determined by this November’s results. If Biden loses, New Hampshire will have a stronger hand.

If he wins, the vice president will almost certainly press the national party to draft a version of the calendar Biden attempted this election. New Hampshire will still hold its primary first, it’s required by state law, but will the candidates and the media still come in the same fashion?

Equally uncertain, but also shaped in part by Tuesday, is Sununu’s future.

One of his friends, longtime New Hampshire GOP hand Steve Duprey, is eager for the governor to get to the Senate, earn some foreign policy experience and then run for president at the first available chance.

“Foreign relations isn’t keeping the river guarded against Vermont,” said Duprey. “Do one term, if it hits it hits.” Sorry, Steve, Sununu said: “No, could I make it more clear that I’m not running for the Senate?”

I sat down with Sununu at Franklin Pierce University on Saturday, where the governor snapped a selfie of himself in front of a portrait of the school’s former president, Andy Card (speaking of New England chiefs of staff for presidents named Bush).

“Four terms as governor?” he said. “That’s enough for anybody.”

But you clearly enjoy being in the fray, I said.

“I love it,” he shot back. “But it’s not a career. It shouldn’t be for anyone.”

It’s notable for his future viability, though, that he’s now saying he’ll support Trump as the nominee. And that he’s ruling out any possibility of running as a No Labels candidate.

“I’ve told her straight up, I’m not interested,” Sununu said, alluding to conversations he’s had with the group’s chief, Nancy Jacobson.

He can’t help himself, though, and reveals that he “gave them advice,” namely “the characteristics of who you want on the ticket.”

It's what makes Sununu fun to cover — he’s both irrepressible and cocky — and what makes me thinks he’ll follow in his father’s footsteps onto television while skipping the chief of staff part (which, the elder Sununu was happy to remind me, was actually “the Sherman Adams model"). While John H. Sununu is well-remembered as George H.W. Bush’s cantankerous chief of staff, what’s less well recalled is he went on to be a co-host of the late CNN show, “Crossfire.”

The younger Sununu’s fellow politicians can be less enamored of him, though.

Why are mainstream Republicans, like fellow Gov. Joe Lombardo in Nevada, already bowing to Trump, I asked? Because they’re “afraid of their image” and not being “Trump enough in their own state” for the GOP base, he said.

Why didn’t Haley hire any of New Hampshire’s experienced political professionals to steer her campaign? “What could they do that I can’t do?” he said, before plunging the knife in deeper. “Those guys take a lot of money to give you general advice that anybody could figure out.”

When I pressed him on why he hadn’t given Christie a head’s up on endorsing Haley, Sununu went on at some length about why that made no sense, even recounting the same criticism when he didn’t first call Mitch McConnell after deciding not to run for the Senate in 2022.

“Screw you, Mitch McConnell,” Sununu said, working himself up a bit. “I don’t work for you. I work for the people in the state.”

As for Christie being upset about the lack of contact, the governor said, “So go have a beer with John Kasich and see where that leads you,” alluding to the former Ohio governor turned failed presidential hopeful who backed Biden in 2020. “I mean, they’re just disgruntled, angry.”

Christie declined to comment. He was, however, stung by the lack of advance warning about Sununu’s plans, I’m told. He was on a plane with his wife, Mary Pat, when he found out. She asked if Sununu had just texted him to tell him. No, he told her, he saw the news pop on the website of WMUR, New Hampshire’s only TV station.

One of Christie’s advisers predicted some time ago that Sununu would never back him because that would mean Sununu would not be the star of the buddy show in the final weeks of New Hampshire.

On that score, Sununu has been fairly disciplined about not overshadowing Haley (well, except when he appears to take a stab at her questions).

It's not easy for him, though. I was standing near Sununu at a bakery on New Hampshire’s seacoast when Haley did a Fox News satellite interview about 20 feet away.

He had just boasted to me about how Haley was the only candidate “earning it the right way,” yet when she grew defensive during her TV hit, he couldn’t help but whisper how he wished she parried the questions.

“How am I not a conservative?” Haley demanded of her disembodied interlocutor, adding: “I’ve never once said I want to cut Social Security.”

To which Sununu under his breath said what he wished she had also said: “I want to save Social Security.”

Mostly, though, Sununu has saved his critiques for private. When I caught a couple of old salts at a diner in Amherst — the ones who prompted Haley to say being Trump’s running mate was “off the table” — waving over Sununu to tell him she should be careful highlighting the age of her opponent in a state with so many elderly voters, he was only polite.

He's been less so with Haley’s rivals. When DeSantis dropped out of the race Sunday, Sununu and Haley were in the kitchen of a seaside lobster pound.

Upon emerging into the restaurant, Haley was magnanimous in her brief remarks to supporters, saying the Florida governor had “run a great campaign.”

When I corralled Sununu for his assessment, he all but picked up a lobster mallet (one of the metal ones). Was it a mistake for DeSantis to endorse Trump on the way out of the race, I asked. “No one really cares,” he said.

And while he tries not to show it on the campaign trail, Sununu shares Haley’s frustration with the Trump coverage. When she refuses to debate DeSantis alone, for example, she’s faulted while nobody mentions that Trump has skipped every primary debate this election.

“There’s a double standard in the fact that he’s treated like a celebrity,” Sununu told me when we spoke at the college. “The fact that there are press that are afraid to cover him the appropriate way. And we know who that is.”

Does it start with an F and end with an X, I asked.

“Something like that,” he said smiling. “I’m not a good speller though, so I don’t know what you’re referring to.”

Leave it to Sununu’s father, though, to get to the heart of the matter about Trump. And why is it that, for all of the work put in by Christopher, as the father calls the son, the former president is poised to once again reclaim the nomination of what was their party.

You called him a loser in 2016, I reminded the elder Sununu, and he’s only racked up political losses since then, for himself and the party. Why can’t Republicans quit him?

“The problem is that people still haven’t heard anyone that tickles their emotions to that level,” the elder Sununu said of Trump. “Until you have somebody who comes along — and I think Nikki is beginning to get like that — that starts talking about issues on an intellectual basis clearly enough that it overcomes emotion, they’re going to ride the emotion thing until someone like her convinces them that we can go back to voting on the basis of rationality rather than our emotionality.”

I tried to go to the next question, but the elder Sununu interjected to reveal both that he retained his fastball and that so many Republicans are careful what they say about Trump.

“That was a complicated answer, don’t screw me by picking words here and there and making it a little different than what I said,” he demanded.

Ben Johansen contributed to this report.