- Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley will be endorsed by New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu in Manchester on Tuesday evening
- Sununu is looking for a presidential candidate he can support as he wants his party to leave former President Donald Trump behind
- Haley has surpassed Florida Governor Ron DeSantis into second place in New Hampshire, where she needs a strong performance next month
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley will be endorsed by New Hampshire's popular GOP governor, Chris Sununu, at an event in Manchester on Tuesday evening.
Sununu's endorsement comes as the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor tries to position himself as the top Trump alternative in the shrinking 2024 GOP field.
Standing in their way is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has surpassed them in New Hampshire but still leads Haley in the polls in Iowa.
DeSantis is still narrowly ahead of Haley, according to national polls, but the gap is closing.
DeSantis was previously endorsed by popular Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, and Haley tried to repeat that with Sununu's plug in New Hampshire.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley (left) will be endorsed by New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (right) in Manchester on Tuesday evening as she strives to become the GOP's top Trump alternative in the 2024 primaries
Nikki Haley posted on X on Tuesday that it would be a “great day in New Hampshire with Governor Chris Sununu” after news broke that she had his endorsement
Sununu announced in June that he would not run for the White House and in July that he would not run for re-election after serving four terms as governor of the Granite State.
These moves allowed him to spend his time finding a replacement for Trump as he has argued that the ex-president must go.
“Republicans will lose again,” he predicted in June op-ed for The Washington Post.
“We should not be complacent, and candidates should not enter this race to advance a vanity campaign, sell books, or audition to serve as Donald Trump's vice president,” he wrote.
“Since 2017, the national Republican Party has lost up and down elections, in both red states and blue states, and in elections for the House of Representatives, the Senate and the presidency,” he continued. “That will happen again unless we Republicans make a course correction.”
Sununu also memorably called Trump “f***ing Crazy” at the 2022 annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington.
The mail was the first to report about Sununu's upcoming Haley endorsement.
New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu (left) stands next to Nikki Haley (right) during a campaign stop in Hooksett late last month. Sununu is looking for a Republican candidate to take on Trump in a two-way race
Sununu has argued that the Republican playing field must simply shrink if Trump wants to lose.
It's unclear whether he will call on the remaining candidates — DeSantis, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy — to resign when he appears with Haley on Tuesday night.
But during a September appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, the governor said candidates should drop out of the race “hopefully before Super Tuesday.”
The Iowa caucuses will be held on January 15, while the New Hampshire primaries will be held on January 23. Super Tuesday will fall on March 5 next year.
“The candidates need the discipline and responsibility to get out,” Sununu said. 'Because he loses one-on-one, there's no doubt about that. He's not going to keep 50 percent of the vote if it's one-on-one… if seven or eight candidates have the discipline to get out, he's ruined.”
Sununu's performance with Haley in Manchester Tuesday night will take place around the same time DeSantis is headlining a CNN town hall with voters in Iowa.
In a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for Christie, who is heavily focused on winning New Hampshire, shrugged off Sununu's endorsement of Haley.
“We've seen reports of Governor Sununu's decision to endorse Nikki Haley. This gives us one vote in New Hampshire and when Governor Christie is back in Londonderry tomorrow, he will continue to tell the unvarnished truth about Donald Trump and earn that one missing vote and thousands more,” said Christie spokesman Karl Rickett.