New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said in an op-ed this week that Republican presidential candidates should meet two requirements by the end of the year or leave the race — and if they don’t, he’ll do “everything” he can as governor of the key primary state to force them out.
Writing in The New York Times on Monday, Sununu accused former President Donald Trump of “running to save himself” from his legal problems and encouraged other candidates to go after him during this week’s first Republican primary debate.
“While it’s true that Mr. Trump has an iron grip on more than 30 percent of the electorate, the other 60 percent or so is open to moving forward with a new nominee,” Sununu wrote.
Sununu said that the candidates who “have no viable path should be called out” and said some candidates were “auditioning for a Trump presidency cabinet that will simply never happen.”
The 48-year-old governor, who boasts high poll numbers in his state, said that “at a minimum, any candidate who does not make the stage for the first two debates must drop out,” adding that any candidate “who is polling in the low single digits by Christmas must acknowledge that their efforts have fallen short.”
Sununu said most of the candidates needed to hit Trump harder, while former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie “must broaden his message and show voters that he is more than the anti-Trump candidate.”
“As governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state, I will do everything I can to help narrow the field,” he said. “I plan to endorse and campaign for the best alternative to Mr. Trump. As of now, it’s anyone’s for the taking.”
Sununu said that “governors, senators, donors and media influencers” have an “obligation to help narrow the field” so that Americans have an alternative to the former president, and they must “amplify the Republican message that the longer these candidates stay in the race, the more they are helping Joe Biden — and Kamala Harris — get four more years.”