Sununu seeks 4th term as governor, not Hassan's Senate seat

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said Tuesday that he would seek a fourth term instead of running for Senate, dealing a major blow to Republicans who had hoped he could defeat Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan and help them retake the chamber in next year’s midterm elections.

Sununu, who won reelection last year by more than 30 percentage points, said he could have a bigger and more direct impact as governor than as a senator. In a nod to the slow speed of politics in Washington, he said he didn't want to spend the next six years “sitting around having meeting after meeting, waiting for votes to maybe happen.”

“My responsibility is not to the gridlock and politics of Washington — it’s to the citizens of New Hampshire. And I’d rather push myself 120 miles an hour delivering wins for New Hampshire than to slow down and end up on Capitol Hill debating partisan politics without results,” he said at a news conference in Concord.

“I like moving. I like getting stuff done. I don’t know if they could handle me down there,” he said. “I think I’d be like a lion in a cage, waiting to get something done and effect real change.”

Democrats now hold a narrow majority in the 50-50 U.S. Senate by virtue of Vice President Kamala Harris’ role as a tiebreaking vote. Sununu’s decision to seek a fourth two-year term in New Hampshire has a ripple effect on the larger national Senate landscape, which has begun to settle a year before Election Day 2022. The current map offers only a handful of legitimate pickup opportunities for the GOP – and more states where Democrats will likely be on offense.

Sununu had faced intense pressure to run for Senate. At a gathering of top Republicans last weekend in Las Vegas, he was repeatedly urged to run by some of his party’s most...