Outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu doesn’t buy the theory that Donald Trump’s candidacy is a lost cause in New Hampshire or that he’ll drag down the GOP down-ballot. And as evidence, he points to Democrats themselves.
“If you look at the polls, Trump could win here,” Sununu told NHJournal on Wednesday. “It’s effectively tied in the polls, and that hasn’t happened in a long, long time. And I think what that says is people are looking at their situation today, and if they want to change, they’re going to vote for change. They won’t just stick with party.”
That might also explain U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas’ recent behavior, going out of his way to praise the former president and tout his support for Trump policies on trade and investment.
“It looks like Chris Pappas might be campaigning with Donald Trump,” Sununu quipped.
A New Hampshire Journal/Praecones Analytica poll released last month found Biden and Trump tied at 37 percent, a finding that was supported by a UNH Survey Center poll released soon after showing the race within the margin of error.
On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris’s husband, second gentleman Douglas Emhoff, will be campaigning with senior citizens as a pickleball event, part of a Biden campaign initiative to boost support among older voters.
U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster (D-N.H.) told NBC News that older voters are attracted to Biden’s “steady hand.”
“They want someone with competence,” Kuster said. “They don’t like the volatility, and they don’t like the risk.” Kuster also said older voters, who remember what the country was like before Roe v. Wade legalized abortion, could be motivated by the issue now because “it affects their daughters and their granddaughters.”
But polls also show Biden has the lowest approval rating of any president at this point in office in the modern political era. A new Economist/YouGov poll found just 36 percent of voters approve of the job Biden is doing as president, while 59 percent oppose.
Those numbers are being felt in New Hampshire, Sununu said.
“Everything’s always up in the air here in New Hampshire, and you have to earn every vote. So I imagine you’re going to see both President Biden and former President Trump make a bunch of visits to New Hampshire through the general election because this is going to be one of those toss-up states that really is back in play.”
