New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu has made his decision. He will not enter the Republican presidential primary race. Given how things have been playing out in New Hampshire this primary season, this decision really isn’t much of a surprise. He wrote an op-ed that was published in the Washington Post this afternoon.

The fact that Sununu chose to deliver his decision and message in the Washington Post tells you that he is a traditional New England Republican. He is comfortable in hostile environments. Sununu has enjoyed a lot of on-air time since the primary season began in earnest. The Democrats who are political show hosts have made him their favorite anti-Trump Republican and have him on to talk about how nominating Trump will surely lead to a Joe Biden victory in 2024. He’s not alone in the opinion but it is less effective coming from a NeverTrump Republican than it would be from a past Trump supporter. It often seemed that Sununu was milking it for as many interviews on television he could get from his indecision about entering the race. He’ll probably still be a frequent face on television screens because he is criticizing Trump and Democrats and their cohorts in the media love that.

This is a busy week for GOP candidates to officially launch their campaigns. Trump’s vice president Mike Pence, Trump frenemy Chris Christie, and the Governor of North Dakota are all holding events this week to kick off their campaigns. Did you see Mike Pence riding a Harley and wearing a black leather vest during Joni Ernst’s ‘Roast and Ride’ event in Iowa on Saturday? That was a sight. Pence was the only presidential candidate that rode with her. Most of the GOP hopefuls were there, except Trump. So, given how the week is filling up with candidate announcements, Sununu made his known today while thing are relatively quiet.

Sununu has made a good point all along, though, and I give him credit for it. He says that a crowded primary field will deliver the nomination to Trump, as it did in 2015. Trump only has to get a little more than 30% of the average primary vote and he’ll win. That is what happened in 2015. He wasn’t overwhelmingly popular with voters. He outlasted all the others by hanging in there with just enough votes to get the most delegates in primaries. Ask Ted Cruz about it. Sununu is right. It’s fine that so many people want to get into the primary race but once it becomes clear that they have no path to victory, they should get out and let the field narrow.

Our party is on a collision course toward electoral irrelevance without significant corrective action. The stakes are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35 percent of the vote, and I will help ensure this does not happen.

The path to winning was clear, but I believe I can have more influence on the future of the Republican Party and the 2024 nominating process not as a candidate but as the governor of the first-in-the-nation primary state — a governor who is unafraid to speak candidly about issues, candidates and the direction of our party, untethered from the limitations of a presidential campaign and unleashed from conventional boundaries. We must not be complacent, and candidates should not get into this race to further a vanity campaign, to sell books or to audition to serve as Donald Trump’s vice president.

He’s not wrong. In fact, I applaud him for his honesty. It’s refreshing. Not to pick on anyone specifically but, why is the Governor of North Dakota getting into the race? He is going to self-fund (he’s a former software executive who sold his company to Microsoft) but he said he’ll solicit outside donations. In order to qualify to get on the debate stage, he has to have 40,000 donors and his timeframe is 11 weeks. Is that going to happen? We’ll see.

Sununu addressed what will happen if Trump secures the GOP nomination. It will be another Republican loss.

Current polls indicate Trump is the leading Republican candidate in 2024. He did not deliver on his promises to drain the swamp, secure the border and instill fiscal responsibility while in office — and added $8 trillion to our national debt — yet now he wants four more years. He is facing numerous investigations and continues to peddle the conspiracy theory that he won the 2020 election, repelling independents.

If he is the nominee, Republicans will lose again. Just as we did in 2018, 2020 and 2022. This is indisputable, and I am not willing to let it happen without a fight.

By choosing not to seek the nomination, I can be more effective for the Republican Party in ways few other leaders can. The microphone afforded to the governor of New Hampshire plays a critical role in an early nominating state. I plan to endorse, campaign and support the candidate I believe has the best chance of winning in November 2024.

Again, I don’t think Sununu is wrong.

His op-ed is worth a read if you are not an Only-Trump voter. I’ll be curious to see to whom he gives his endorsement.

I’m not surprised that Sununu isn’t running because his reluctance to enter the race right away was his tell, as far as I was concerned. He let Trump and DeSantis gather up most of the state’s elected officials. How awkward would it be for Sununu then to enter and ask for their endorsements? It would be “really freaking weird for everybody.” I don’t think any of them expected Sununu to pull the trigger on a run this cycle. Sununu is young. He’s only 48 now. There may be a lane for him in future elections.