AP Photo/Darron Cummings
- NH GOP Gov. Chris Sununu said Republicans won't be able to win in 2024 without independent voters.
- The potential presidential candidate made the remarks at the annual NRA conference in Indianapolis.
- Sununu has been a vocal critic of former President Trump's efforts to return to the White House.
New Hampshire Republican Gov. Chris Sununu, a potential 2024 presidential candidate, spoke out against some of the ideological divisions within the party on Friday, admitting that he was "nervous" about the White House contest next year.
While speaking at the annual conference of the National Rifle Association, Sununu, a fourth-term governor who is a broadly popular figure in the Granite State, said that Republicans would have to win support among a wide swath of voters in order to win in 2024 — especially among the critical bloc of independent voters who often decide the outcomes of races up and down the ballot.
And Sununu, who has been critical of former President Donald Trump's efforts to win the GOP presidential nomination next year, was blunt on what he foresaw as a potential problem for the party.
"Just to talk about the politics, I get nervous about 2024," he said. "If we don't have those independents, if we don't have those folks back on the team, those disenfranchised voters, it ain't gonna happen for us."
"We can yell and scream all we want, but we want winners. We want winners for tomorrow. We've got to be inspirational," he continued. "We've got to be big again, bigger than ourselves."
Sununu in February said that his potential campaign would offer voters "an opportunity to change things" in the nation's capital, while also offering a positive vision for the GOP.
"It drives me crazy when Republicans talk in an echo chamber about, you know, how bad the president is," he said of President Joe Biden at the time. "You gotta be for something."
Last year, Republicans were expected to post major gains in Congress, but they faltered in the most competitive Senate races and in many critical House contests, with the party struggling among younger voters, college-educated voters, and suburban independents.
While GOP leaders had high hopes that inflation would lift them to victory, Democrats were able to capitalize off the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, which made abortion a huge political issue in races across the country. And the GOP has so far stumbled in appealing to voters who are wary of a national abortion ban or restrictions to abortion medication.