Gov. Chris Sununu confirms he won't seek election in 2024

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu announced Wednesday he will not seek a record fifth term.

“After much consideration, I have decided not to run for another term as governor in 2024,” Sununu wrote on Twitter. “Be assured we will keep working and that the Granite State will continue to be our priority for the next 18 months."

Sununu, 48, a Republican, and John Lynch, a Democrat, are the only two New Hampshire governors to serve four consecutive terms. Sununu earlier this year decided not to run for president and also previously turned down calls to run for U.S. Senate.

“Public service should never be a career, and the time is right for another Republican to lead our great state,” Sununu wrote. “This was no easy decision as I truly love serving as governor. I could not be more proud of our record and it's thanks to your support that we’ve accomplished so much.”

Immediately following Sununu’s announcement longtime New Hampshire Senate President Chuck Morse announced he will seek the Republican Party nomination for governor.

"Like most everyone else in New Hampshire I’m thankful for everything that Governor Sununu has done to make New Hampshire the state it is today,” Morse said in a press release.

“Now that he’s decided not to run for re-election, I’m announcing that I am running for governor to build on those successes.”

Other prospective Republican candidates include Education Commission Frank Edelblut and former U.S. Senator Kelly Ayotte.

More: Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington to run for NH governor in 2024

More: Joyce Craig, Democratic mayor of Manchester, launches run for governor of New Hampshire

On the Democratic side, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig and Executive Councilor Cinde Warmington have announced gubernatorial bids.

Sununu, a popular governor who made the rounds on national talk shows this year, announced in June that he will not seek the presidency in 2024. He argued that Republican candidates with “no path to victory must have the courage to get out” of their party’s increasingly crowded primary to stop former President Donald Trump.

Sununu has said he would endorse the GOP’s ultimate nominee in 2024, but argued in the op-ed that Republican must embrace a “course correction” away from Trump.

In 2021, Sununu decided against a U.S. Senate bid, dealing a major blow to Republicans who had hoped he could defeat Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan and help them retake the chamber in the 2022 midterm elections.

Sununu, who won reelection in 2020 by more than 30 percentage points, said he could have a bigger and more direct impact as governor than as a senator. In a nod to the slow speed of politics in Washington, he said he didn’t want to spend the next six years “sitting around having meeting after meeting, waiting for votes to maybe happen.”

Sununu, whose father was governor from 1983 to 1989 and later served as White House chief of staff under President George H.W. Bush, was the youngest top executive in the country when he took office in 2017 at age 42.

Material from the Associated Press is used in this report.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: NH Gov. Chris Sununu won't seek election in 2024