New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, who recently went against the grain by endorsing Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley for the 2024 GOP primary over frontrunner Donald Trump, was named “Citizen of the Year” by the state’s daily newspaper, the right-leaning New Hampshire Union Leader, which is the state’s only statewide circulated newspaper (and its largest overall, with a 45K daily circulation).
[Note: In 2020, Politico referred to Sununu as “the only Republican Trump can’t touch,” after the governor criticized being Trump for being “too extreme” and referred to him as “[expletive] crazy” at the annual Gridiron Club dinner in 2022 in Washington, D.C. As seen below, after the event Sununu said the comment about Trump being admitted into a mental institution was a joke.]
When Sununu was named Citizen of the Year by the historically conservative newspaper, he wrote: “Don’t worry about the politics, don’t fret about the policy. Think about the people. That’s really all the legacy I am trying to leave. It is an honor to be named Union Leader’s Citizen of the Year.”
Founded in 1863, Union Leader was best known for the conservative political opinions of its late publisher, William Loeb, who like Sununu, did not hesitate to castigate fellow Republicans.
In 1971, while Nixon was running for re-election, Loeb said: “I had high hopes for Nixon. But I’ve been disappointed, in part because of his foreign policy, but mostly I’m offended by the evidence of his petty duplicity … It has marked everything he does, trying to play both sides of the street on every issue, and it is repugnant. He has tried to deceive both sides, and that is not good for the nation.”
Loeb added: “I’m just interested in getting someone in the White House who makes some sense. With Nixon we are dealing with someone with no fixed philosophy and who is not terribly bright.”
[Note: The New Hampshire Presidential Primary is scheduled for January 23, 2024.]
