Ron DeSantis wants Chris Sununu’s endorsement. Will he get it?

Ron DeSantis. Image via Never Back Down

Ron DeSantis says he wants the endorsement of New Hampshire’s Governor, but it’s far from a sure thing he will get it.

“Oh, yeah. No, of course,” DeSantis said on New Hampshire radio, when asked if he wanted Chris Sununu’s endorsement.

“I think Chris has done a great job. I think New Hampshire is the best-governed state in New England. I said (earlier this week) with some media from New England that I reject Donald Trump’s attacks on Chris Sununu,” DeSantis added.

“I think that they’re out of bounds and I think we should be celebrating Republican Governors who can win elections and get things done. And whether that’s Kim Reynolds in Iowa, Chris Sununu in New Hampshire or other Republican Governors across the country, I’m proud that we’ve got a lot of good people working for the people of their states.”

The Governor made the comments Thursday on “The Pulse of New Hampshire.” They came just 24 hours after Sununu expressed “concern” over the DeSantis campaign.

“I think there’s a concern,” Sununu told host Jack Heath, despite DeSantis’ “name ID” and “money.”

Sununu urged DeSantis to “get on the ground” and “put people on the ground in Iowa in New Hampshire, knocking on doors.”

The New Hampshire Governor framed recent changes in the DeSantis campaign — which included moving DeSantis’ Chief of Staff out of the Governor’s Office and installing him as the 2024 Campaign Manager — as a positive.

“Seeing a change in the campaign isn’t the worst thing in the world,” Sununu said, adding that DeSantis is “pivoting, going more local, going more retail” and that’s a “good thing.”

“I don’t want to knock him for pivoting on his campaign because the campaign evolves. The strategy evolves, right? Where you’re doing well, where you’re not, that all moves. So I think as long as he gets on the ground, he just, my advice to him is just be yourself.”

Sununu then seemed to concede DeSantis has a likability deficit, but it’s not necessarily his fault. Rather, it’s the fault of his handlers.

“I mean, he’s actually, he’s a really nice guy. I think his team overthinks it a little bit,” Sununu said.

The Governor is at 8% in the latest New Hampshire Poll, 41 points behind Trump and 1 point behind former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

During Thursday’s show, DeSantis dismissed concerns he wasn’t good at “retail politics” as one of the media’s “narratives” that disfavor him.

“I want to get in front of as many New Hampshire voters as I can. And what we found is when people get to see me, they say, oh man, you know, you’re really good, you’re nothing like what the media says about you,” DeSantis claimed.

The Governor will be in Nashua Friday for a dinner and on the road in the Granite State Saturday on a “Never Back Down” super PAC bus tour.