1. Christopher Thomas Sununu is an American politician and engineer who served as the 82nd governor of New Hampshire from 2017 to 2025.
59 Facts About Chris Sununu
1. 2.
Chris Sununu earned a bachelor's degree in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Chris Sununu was first elected governor of New Hampshire in 2016.
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Chris Sununu is the second governor in New Hampshire history to be elected to a fourth term.
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Chris Sununu's tenure focused on fiscal conservatism, tax cuts, business-friendly policies, and efforts to combat the opioid crisis.
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Chris Sununu endorsed Kelly Ayotte, who won the election to succeed him.
7.
Chris Sununu's older brother, John E Sununu, is a former US senator and US representative.
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Chris Sununu's family originates from Lebanon, though his paternal grandfather, John, was born in the United States.
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Chris Sununu's father, named John, was born in Havana, Cuba.
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Chris Sununu's paternal grandmother was an immigrant from El Salvador, born to a prominent Salvadoran family of Lebanese descent who were Greek Orthodox Christians.
11.
When he took office as governor, Chris Sununu was sworn in with a Greek Orthodox New Testament Bible belonging to his family.
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Chris Sununu graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 1993.
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Chris Sununu worked as an environmental engineer designing systems and solutions for cleaning up waste sites under the supervision of licensed engineers.
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Chris Sununu specialized in soil and groundwater remediation, wastewater treatment plants, and landfill designs.
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In 2010, Chris Sununu led a group of investors in the buyout of Waterville Valley Resort.
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Chris Sununu worked as the resort's chief executive officer, employing over 700 people in the White Mountains region.
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Chris Sununu was an elected member of the five-member Executive Council of New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017.
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In 2010, Chris Sununu joined the other four Executive Council members in voting unanimously to release Ward Bird from his mandatory three- to six-year prison sentence for threatening another person with a gun.
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On May 14,2019, Chris Sununu announced that he would seek a third term as governor, rather than challenging Senator Jeanne Shaheen in the 2020 election.
20.
Chris Sununu outpaced President Donald Trump by about 151,000 votes of approximately 793,000 cast, as Trump lost New Hampshire's electoral votes.
21.
On November 9,2021, Chris Sununu announced his intention to run for a fourth term as governor instead of challenging incumbent US senator Maggie Hassan.
22.
Chris Sununu was sworn in as governor on January 5,2017.
23.
Chris Sununu was sworn in for his second term on January 3,2019, and his third term on January 7,2021.
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In October 2018, Chris Sununu introduced the state's new "hub and spoke model" for addiction recovery.
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In March 2019, Chris Sununu announced that an additional $12 million had been allocated to New Hampshire to fight the opioid epidemic.
26.
On May 3,2019, Chris Sununu vetoed a bill to repeal capital punishment in New Hampshire.
27.
Chris Sununu signed the veto at a community center named after Briggs.
28.
Chris Sununu has criticized members of Congress for getting early access to COVID-19 vaccines.
29.
In November 2020, Chris Sununu instituted a statewide mask mandate, which sparked protests outside his house.
30.
Legislation signed into law by Governor Chris Sununu resulted in some voters, including women, being turned away from voting in the March 11,2025, election in Amherst, New Hampshire.
31.
Chris Sununu sought to slightly reduce other taxes, and to institute student loan relief for those going into health care and social work.
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Chris Sununu has supported tax cuts for businesses and a reduction in property taxes.
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Chris Sununu signed a bill making it easier for medical facilities to be licensed to treat veterans.
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Chris Sununu opposed the Senate's Republican health care plan in 2017, citing that the proposal would negatively affect Medicaid and addiction recovery services in the state.
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Chris Sununu nominated 27 New Hampshire "opportunity zones" to receive federal tax breaks for low-income areas.
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Chris Sununu said that he agreed with Musk's underlying goals, including major spending cuts and eliminating bureaucratic waste and explicitly supported large-scale job reductions in the federal government.
37.
In late June 2018 and again on June 4,2019, Chris Sununu vetoed New Hampshire Senate Bill 446, which would have increased the limit for renewable energy projects participating in net metering from 1 megawatt to 5 MW.
38.
In 2016, Chris Sununu reluctantly supported Donald Trump in the 2016 United States presidential election, but in 2019, he called himself a "Trump guy through and through".
39.
Unlike other moderate Republican governors like Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland, and Phil Scott of Vermont, Chris Sununu supported Trump and voted for him in 2020.
40.
In December 2023, Chris Sununu endorsed Nikki Haley for president in the 2024 United States presidential election.
41.
Chris Sununu campaigned for Haley; in January 2024, The New York Times called him "an energetic, unusually involved ally" of Haley's.
42.
Chris Sununu officially endorsed Trump in March 2024 after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee.
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Chris Sununu has said that he supports legal abortion, but does not support taxpayer funding for abortions and supports a ban on partial-birth abortion.
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Chris Sununu later reversed his position and voted to restore the funding.
45.
In 2019, Chris Sununu vetoed a bill that would have banned people from carrying firearms on school property.
46.
In 2017, Chris Sununu signed Senate Bill 12, which enacted the right to carry a handgun without a permit in New Hampshire.
47.
In 2018, Chris Sununu said he would refuse to send the New Hampshire National Guard to the US-Mexico border to enforce Trump's "zero-tolerance" policy in regard to undocumented immigrants.
48.
Chris Sununu is seen as supportive of LGBT rights; he said that he does not get involved with the state's GOP platform issues and spoke at an event for the Log Cabin Republicans, the LGBT wing of the Republican Party.
49.
In 2018, Chris Sununu signed into law two bills intended to protect LGBT rights, one prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity in housing, employment, and public accommodations and one banning conversion therapy from being used on minors.
50.
Proponents of the bill responded that Chris Sununu lacked understanding of the challenges the transgender community faced.
51.
In 2022, Chris Sununu said he would veto a "parental bill of rights" that critics claimed would have forced schools to disclose students' gender identities to their parents.
52.
On July 18,2024, Chris Sununu signed three bills limiting transgender rights.
53.
Chris Sununu vetoed a fourth bill that would have allowed businesses and government entities to discriminate against trans people.
54.
In 2020, Chris Sununu joined Democrats in supporting permanent funding for conservation efforts in the US and particularly in New Hampshire.
55.
In September 2020, LEACT submitted 50 recommendations to Chris Sununu, ranging from the creation of an independent oversight commission to review allegations of police misconduct to the recommendation that all police officers in the state wear body cameras.
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Chris Sununu endorsed all the recommendations, and said he would direct the New Hampshire State Police to comply with the recommendation to use body cameras.
57.
In December 2021, Chris Sununu asked President Joe Biden and FEMA for emergency response teams to deal with a surge in COVID-19 cases in New Hampshire.
58.
Chris Sununu met his future wife, Valerie, in college; they married in 2001.
59.
In September 2024, Chris Sununu saved a choking contestant at a lobster roll eating contest by performing the Heimlich maneuver.