Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig declared Tuesday that she'd seek the Democratic nomination for governor of New Hampshire even though Republican incumbent Chris Sununu hasn't confirmed whether he'll retire. Sununu, who spent months flirting with a presidential campaign before deciding not to go for it, himself said last month that "I don't think I'm going to run again," though he added that he'll only decide sometime this summer.
But Craig, who leads the state's largest city, argued to NBC that she wouldn't let the governor's deliberations impact her campaign, and she used a separate interview with WMUR to fault his response to the state's opioid crisis. The mayor joins Cinde Warmington, who is her party's only member on the state's unique Executive Council, in the primary.
Craig won her post in 2017 by unseating Republican Mayor Ted Gatsas 53-47 two years after falling short by 85 votes, a victory that made her the city's first Democratic leader in over a decade. The mayor of Manchester often gets talked about as a top candidate for higher office, particularly given the dearth of statewide elected positions in New Hampshire (only the governor and its two U.S. senators are elected by the entire state), though Craig didn't show any obvious interest in seeking a promotion for most of her tenure.
That changed in March, though, when she announced she wouldn't seek reelection to her current job this fall. The mayor went on to form an exploratory committee in early May to raise money for a campaign for governor, a strong signal that she would, in fact, launch a bid.