New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R) took a shot at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) over his conservative bona fides amid 2024 speculation.
Sununu, who recently took a major step toward announcing a White House run, crowed that he has been the most fiscally conservative governor and the best on personal freedoms in the country while chiding a major speculated 2024 GOP contender.
CHRIS SUNUNU TAKES MAJOR STEP TOWARD ANNOUNCING WHITE HOUSE RUN
“I’m ranked the most fiscally conservative governor in the country,” Sununu jabbed at Politico's The Fifty: America’s Governors event. “I’m No. 1 in personal freedoms. Sorry, Ron, you’re No. 2."
On Wednesday, Sununu's office confirmed to the Washington Examiner that he established a "Live Free or Die" committee — a mechanism typically used to gauge donor interest ahead of presidential campaigns.
Sununu previously predicted that DeSantis would probably top former President Donald Trump in a New Hampshire primary. DeSantis has risen to GOP stardom for wading into the culture wars and leaning on government powers to combat wokeism in the workplace and other hot-button cultural issues.
The New Hampshire governor conceded that he was "more moderate" on social issues, likely alluding to his support for abortion rights, but underscored his belief that the Granite State has "better results than almost anywhere else."
“We’re far and away the best, you know, because we believe in those individual freedoms. Regulatory reform, I’ll challenge any state on it,” Sununu added.
So far, Trump is the only major Republican to declare his 2024 campaign. Sununu has publicly bashed Trump on occasion and admitted that he is "definitely thinking about" entering the 2024 fray.
"At the end of the day, you're going to have a lot of Republicans that get in that race, they're all really good people, they're really good candidates," Sununu told ABC over the weekend. "Unfortunately, at the end of the day, November of '22 showed us that, right? Trump is going to be seen as a very extreme candidate. The country is going to push back against it."
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New Hampshire remains the second state in the GOP primary lineup and the first primary election on the schedule. Iowa, which comes before New Hampshire on the map, has caucuses.
Democrats have recently moved to bump the Granite State from that perch in their primaries, opting for South Carolina as the first state for a primary election instead, something New Hampshire politicians are fighting.