Governor Chris Sununu (R-NH) said Wednesday on FNC’s “Your World” that there was no red wave because voters feared former President Donald Trump and the candidates he endorsed were extremists.
Sununu said, “There was clearly no red wave. I’m not going to predict what comes out of President Biden’s mouth because I don’t think anybody, even he, can predict that at times. But clearly, America stood up and said, look, inflation is important, but we don’t think the Republicans that wanted to go to Washington are the short-term fix for that right now. More than anything, America said we know we have to fix policy, but we’re going to fix extremism first. That’s the message I took. Not that Republicans were successful, but by and large, the most extreme republicans got voted out.”
He added, “I don’t think the former president did many candidates any favors. It’s not just him. I think there were other individuals. Lindsey Graham talking about abortion, nationalizing an abortion ban weeks before the election did no one any help. The discussion on Social Security and Medicare out of Washington that made people scared on that issue did nobody any help. The fact that, you know, there was a message out of D.C. that kept talking about getting rid of Pelosi and payback. That’s not what people want to see right now. They want to see people that will deliver results. So by and large, the messaging wasn’t where it needed to be, and the quality of the candidate, the quality of the individual that has to connect with the voter, that really does matter to folks at the end of the day.”
Sununu added, “The most major candidates he backed had trouble overcoming, not just him. It wasn’t just about former President Trump, but overcoming that image that brand that tended to really scare people. I’m surprised by it. I thought inflation was the key issue, and folks were going to look to them to solve it. It’s a key issue, but they didn’t think those folks would solve it, and the fear of that extremism overwhelmed them. That surprised me, to be sure. I didn’t predict the results. I thought we were going to have a red wave. So it was more like a red ripple. It should have been stronger than it was.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN