T-Squared: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu will open The Texas Tribune Festival

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news.

We’re excited to share this exciting news about The Texas Tribune Festival: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu will take the stage at the historic Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin for our opening night keynote conversation. The Republican chief executive of the Granite State will sit down with Tribune co-founder Evan Smith at 7 p.m. Thursday, September 21, to talk about the battle for the soul of the GOP, his party’s 2024 presidential primary and former President Donald Trump’s potential return to the White House.

In June, after months of speculation that he would enter the race, Sununu announced that he would not seek the Republican nomination. “The stakes are too high,” he wrote. “Beating Trump is more important.” More recently, he wrote that his party “is on a collision course toward electoral irrelevance without significant corrective action.”

As governor of the state with the nation’s first GOP primary, Sununu wields significant power. He has made clear his desire to thin out a crowded field of candidates and to “endorse, campaign and support the candidate I believe has the best chance of winning in November 2024.”

Sununu is serving his fourth two-year term leading the Northeast’s fastest-growing state, which boasts the nation’s lowest unemployment and child poverty rates. Ensuring a successful future for the Republican Party is personal for Sununu, for whom public service is the family business. His father, John H. Sununu, served as governor of New Hampshire and chief of Staff to President George H. W. Bush. His older brother, John. E. Sununu, represented New Hampshire in both the U.S. House and Senate.

This is a conversation you don’t want to miss. Get your TribFest tickets today for more than 100 hourlong interviews and panel discussions featuring nearly 300 speakers. We’ll see you there.

Disclosure: Paramount Theatre has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.