Former New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte launches Republican bid for governor

Former Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte says she's running for New Hampshire governor to "protect our Live Free or Die way of life."

The former state attorney general, who later represented the key New England battleground state in the U.S. Senate for a term, on Monday officially launched a 2024 campaign for governor, in the race to succeed GOP Gov. Chris Sununu.

"Governor Sununu is an excellent leader who has worked hard to defend our Live Free or Die values and improve New Hampshire’s quality of life," Ayotte wrote in a statement. "The battle to protect our Live Free or Die way of life must continue."

Ayotte also announced her bid in an appearance on Fox News' "Fox and Friends."

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The popular Sununu announced last week that he wouldn't see an unprecedented fifth two-year term as governor in 2024.

"I’m running for Governor because New Hampshire is one election away from becoming Massachusetts – from becoming something we are not," Ayotte wrote as she took aim at the Granite State's more progressive neighbor to the south.

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"I was born here and raised here. I raised my kids here, and you know what? I am going to die here because this state and it’s people are different. What we have here is worth fighting for," Ayotte emphasized. "Together, we will ensure that New Hampshire remains safe, prosperous and free."

Ayotte made history as New Hampshire's first and only woman to serve as state attorney general, from 2004-09. 

She won election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, but narrowly lost re-election in 2016 to Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan, by a margin of just 1,017 votes.

Ayotte becomes the second Republican to launch a gubernatorial campaign. Former longtime state Senate President Chuck Morse declared his candidacy minutes after Sununu announced he wouldn't seek re-election.

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"I think I take what I did in the Senate presidency and take it to the governor's job," Morse told Fox News last week as he pointed to the conservative agenda he and Sununu helped pass over the past seven years.

Frank Edelblut, Sununu's education commissioner who came close to defeating Sununu in the 2016 GOP gubernatorial primary, is seriously considering a gubernatorial run.

Two Democrats have already launched campaigns for governor: Cinde Warmington, the only Democrat on New Hampshire's five-member elected Executive Council, and three-term Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.

As she announced her campaign, Ayotte unveiled an extensive list of endorsements from different wings of the GOP, including former senator and governor Judd Gregg, New Hampshire House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, and Bruce Breton, a co-chair of former President Trump's 2024 White House campaign in New Hampshire.

Ayotte had a strained relationship with Trump during the 2016 presidential campaign.

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In October of that year, after lewd sexual comments Trump made in a decade old video went viral, Ayotte said that as a mother and a former prosecutor who had worked with victims, she could no longer vote for Trump in the general election, and instead wrote in Mike Pence's name.

But in 2017, she helped guide Trump's first Supreme Court nominee – now-Justice Neil Gorsuch – through his Capitol Hill confirmation process, serving as a so-called "sherpa."

Democratic Governors Association communications director Izzy Levy took aim at Ayotte and the burgeoning GOP gubernatorial field.

"With her announcement today, Ayotte joins a field of losing candidates that is all but assured to grow louder, messier, and more extreme, before Granite Staters reject her once more for a candidate who will actually work to defend reproductive freedom and fix the problems they face," Levy charged.