Sununu Skipping Out On WMUR GOP Primary Debate; 1st State Candidate In History To Decline The Invite, Brown Says

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

GOP U.S. Senate frontrunner John E. Sununu is skipping the WMUR primary debate, declining to face off against his opponent, Scott Brown, in a forum that has been viewed as a pillar of New Hampshire’s campaign season.

“John has already done two debates and twenty joint appearances with Scott Brown,” Sununu spokesman Mike Schrimpf said in a statement to NHJournal. “With just days to go before the primary, we are focused on the town-to-town, person-to-person campaign that has given John such great momentum and put him in a position to defeat Chris Pappas in November.”

Sununu also declined to participate in the NHJournal GOP primary debate scheduled for this week.

The NH-01 GOP primary candidates will participate in the NHJournal debate Wednesday night, and the NH-02 candidates will participate Thursday night. Both debates will begin at 6 p.m. and will be carried on C-SPAN and Manchester Public Television.

Brown, who is trailing Sununu by 20 points or more in all available public polling, has repeatedly called out Sununu for his unwillingness to debate.

“Not only does it reek of elite privilege in not having to answer to the people of New Hampshire, but it’s a horrible disservice to them as well. They deserve better,” Brown told NHJournal.

“On his website, John is always talking about doing things the ‘New Hampshire Way.’ That’s BS. This is definitely not how we do it in New Hampshire. This is the DC way. This is them telling him what to do and what not to do.”

On the Jack Heath radio show this AM, Brown said he was told by WMUR that Sununu is the first state candidate in its history to decline to participate in one of its debates.

The most recent prominent candidate to reject a WMUR debate invitation was Nikki Haley during the 2024 presidential primary. Haley said she would participate only if Donald Trump did, prompting ABC News and WMUR to cancel the event. NHJournal could find no comparable example involving a leading New Hampshire candidate for governor or U.S. Senate.

While skipping the WMUR debate might be bad optics, several GOP strategists told NHJournal it is smart politics, given Brown’s poor polling numbers.

“There is no obligation for candidates to provide a platform for opponents to gain attention and allow oneself to be attacked. Let your opponents buy air time,” said veteran GOP strategist Dave Carney.

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas, who also has a significant polling lead over his primary opponent, Karishma Manzur, is scheduled to participate in the WMUR Democratic primary debate Sept. 4.

DEVELOPING…

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.