excerpts:
“He’d be a great candidate,” said Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has personally lobbied Sununu to take on Hassan. “We’re hoping he’d make the race.”
The Kentucky Republican’s party only needs to net a single seat to end Democrats' 50-50 majority in the chamber. But they’re defending two seats next year in states President Joe Biden won and must hold onto others with crowded, expensive primaries. What’s more, Republicans have yet to land big name challengers in once-red Arizona and Georgia, and both states could see contested intra-GOP battles.
Sununu has the potential to be the most important Republican recruit of the cycle. He’s an incumbent three-term governor fresh off a 30-plus-point victory last year in a state Biden carried with relative ease. And he’s political royalty in the Granite State, the son of a former governor and White House chief of staff as well as the brother of a former senator.
“If he runs, we’ll win,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said of Sununu.
Scott even flew to meet personally with Sununu this spring, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
“New Hampshire’s political graveyard is full of Republicans who underestimated Maggie Hassan,” said Ray Buckley, the state's Democratic Party chair.
Republican groups pumped money into the state to defend former Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) in 2016, and Democrats similarly invested tens of millions in outside spending to defeat her. If 2022's race shapes up as Hassan versus Sununu, it could be one of the most expensive in the country.
Republicans also mention Ayotte as a potential candidate next year, but she is not currently interested. If Sununu entered the race she would consider running for governor, however, according to a Republican source familiar with the dynamics.
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