Senate GOP special double topic: "Senate Republicans launch full-court press to woo Sununu"..."Rise of a megadonor: Thiel makes a play for the Senate"

[basquebromance]

i just wanted to say "woo Sununu"

Senate Republicans launch full-court press to woo Sununu

The GOP views the New Hampshire governor as potentially the most important recruit of the midterm cycle.

www.politico.com

Rise of a megadonor: Thiel makes a play for the Senate

Tech billionaire Peter Thiel's twin $10 million investments in two Senate candidates made him one of the key early figures in the 2022 election.

www.politico.com

 

[basquebromance]

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.

 

[basquebromance]

New Hampshire is thought of as a battleground state, i think it's a liberal state actually, which occasionally elects Republicans. Biden won it easily. it will be liberal for a long time!

this excerpt proves it:

The congressional delegation has been all-Democratic since 2017. The last big year for New Hampshire Republicans was 2010, when Ayotte won and Republicans took both House seats. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) won by 15 points last year despite efforts to make her race competitive.

“I remember that in January of 2019, I was considered the second most vulnerable Democrat in the Senate after Doug Jones,” she recalled. “Didn’t turn out quite that way.”

Ayotte eventually divorced herself from Trump after the “Access Hollywood” video in late 2016, fracturing her coalition for reelection that year.

 

[basquebromance]

Peter Thiel was instrumental in shutting down my favorite celebrity gossip site: Gawker!

NOT COOL, THIEL!