Republican Gov. Chris Sununu defeats Feltes to win 3rd term
CONCORD — Republican Gov. Chris Sununu defeated state Senate Majority Leader Dan Feltes on Tuesday to win a third, two-year term.
The son of a former governor, Sununu was the youngest top executive in the country when he took office in 2017 at age 42. Now 45, he campaigned on his management experience and leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. The latter garnered widespread, bipartisan support, though some critics called his restrictions too harsh while others said he didn’t do enough to protect the most vulnerable populations.
Sununu had a relatively smooth first term when Republicans held legislative majorities. With Democrats in control the last two years, he made lavish use of his veto pen to block more than 70 bills, including many sponsored by his opponent. He twice vetoed paid family and medical leave programs authored by Feltes, which he characterized as an income tax. Though Feltes took the traditional pledge against an income or sales tax, Sununu portrayed him as “the income tax architect” in a state that has long resisted both taxes.
Feltes, meanwhile tried to portray Sununu as out of touch, repeatedly reminding voters that Sununu had referred to paid family leave as “vacation” time.
A former legal aid attorney, Feltes contrasted his working-class roots with Sununu’s upbringing in a political family, and said he was running to help working families, not out of a sense of entitlement. Sununu previously served three terms on the Executive Council, which approves state contracts and nominations, and was general manager of Waterville Valley ski area, which his family owns. Sununu’s father served as governor in the 1980s, and his brother served in Congress.
Feltes, who has represented Concord in the state Senate for three terms, also often criticized Sununu’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, saying he didn’t do enough to protect nursing home residents or schoolchildren.
But Sununu was able to overcome Feltes’ chief strategy of linking him to President Donald Trump. Though Feltes missed no opportunity to highlight a comment Sununu made about being a “Trump guy through and through,” Sununu maintained a certain distance from the president and even criticized him on occasion.
Libertarian Darryl Perry also was on the ballot.