When President Donald Trump addressed Republicans at the party's midterm convention in Dallas last week, he wasn’t coy when it came to telling Republicans how to act between now and November.
“I am asking you to pretend that I am on the ballot,” Trump said to cheers. “I am on the ballot. I’m on it.”
But when New Hampshire Republicans gathered Monday for their post-primary “Unity Breakfast” in Concord, talk of Trump was conspicuously absent. In fact, no GOP candidate who spoke at the breakfast even mentioned Trump; neither did the chairman of the state Republican Party. And whenever Trump did come up, top candidates made haste to distance themselves from him.
“I’ve never even met the president, but there is no question that I will be a much more effective voice with this administration,” U.S. Senate candidate John Sununu told Fox News during an interview at the breakfast.
Midterm elections usually challenge candidates who share a party with the incumbent president. But with Trump now polling with a roughly 30% popularity rating in New Hampshire, overcoming that dynamic may pose a particular challenge for top GOP candidates on the state ballot this November.
Sununu is a case in point. He was endorsed by Trump in his primary this year, but he's has also said he disagrees with Trump’s handling of the Iran war and his tariff policy. When asked Sununu about Trump’s proposal to give taxpayers a $5,000 check should Republicans retain control in Washington, Sununu quickly dismissed it.
“I’ve never been for one-time changes in the tax code,” Sununu said. “It’s not good. It’s not consistent. It’s not efficient.”
First Congressional District nominee Anthony DiLorenzo was standing beside Sununu as he spoke, but he ignored a reporter’s request to weigh in on Trump. Trump has also endorsed DiLorenzo, and while that backing helped the political newcomer win the primary, DiLorenzo is stopping well short of fully embracing Trump as he looks to November.
A recent video on social media shows DiLorenzo trying to explain to a voter his relationship to the president, taking pains to emphasize that Trump’s endorsement should not be interpreted as a mutual embrace.
“That’s his behavior endorsing me; that’s him recognizing that I am the best candidate,” DiLorenzo says in the footage. When the voter in the video, former Portsmouth Mayor Peter Weeks, tells DiLorenzo he doesn’t like how Trump talks about people, DiLorenzo doesn’t disagree and says his support of Trump is strictly a matter of policy stances.
“I don’t approach anything like the president, but on the issues, I can’t argue with him.” DiLorenzo said.
Lily Tang Williams, the Republican nominee in the state's 2nd Congressional District, is a more practiced hand when it comes to positioning on Trump.
When Williams ran for this same seat two years ago, she wrapped herself in Trumpism. But talk to Williams these days, and her message on Trump is a lot more circumspect.
“In 2024, he was running for president, so of course I endorsed him, but I never had the chance to shake his hand in person and meet him. So I don’t have that personal feeling about him,” she said while campaigning last month.
The candidate who probably has the luxury to take the most arms-length approach to Trump is Gov. Kelly Ayotte. At this point Ayotte, a Republican running for her second term, is well-known to voters and has built her own political image. But she’s also had the longest — and bumpiest — political history with Trump.
It stretches back to 2016, when she pulled her support from Trump during her U.S. Senate reelection effort after the release of a video tape in which Trump boasted of grabbing women.
“I will not be voting for Donald Trump; I also will not be voting for Hillary Clinton,” Ayotte told reporters that year, just days before she narrowly lost her reelection. Instead, she said, she’d be casting a ballot for Mike Pence, who was running as Trump’s vice-presidential nominee: “And I will call it like I see it, no matter what.”
Yet, within months, Ayotte was helping Trump win Senate support for Neil Gorsuch, his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court. And ever since, Ayotte’s adopted an approach to dealing with Trump — as a governor and as a candidate — that’s typified more by situational calculation than unconditional straight talk.
“There are times when I publicly disagree with the administration; there are times when I have discussions directly with them with behind the scenes,” Ayotte said in June. “So I look at every situation as: what can I do best to advocate for the people of New Hampshire and will take whatever approach fits the situation to get results.”
In election season, results are the bottom line for every candidate. For Republicans in top New Hampshire races, getting the outcome they seek this year may hinge on figuring out how to mitigate the effect of an unpopular president who isn’t on the ballot — but insists otherwise.
