AFP Pours Millions Into Sununu Race, One Door At A Time

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

“My name is Justin with Americans for Prosperity Action. I’m going around the neighborhood and speaking with voters about the upcoming U.S. Senate elections, and I was just curious if you were planning on voting Nov. 3.”

And with that, Justin Wilson, grassroots engagement director with Americans for Prosperity New Hampshire, begins yet another of the thousands of conversations he’s had knocking doors for John Sununu in the Granite State.

On a recent fall afternoon, beneath blue skies and falling leaves, NHJournal accompanied Justin, a young man in his 20s, as he worked an upscale Bedford neighborhood, urging Sununu supporters to turn out and trying to convince fence-sitters to get on the bandwagon.

The results were mixed. At one door, a woman who declined to give her name (as did nearly every voter visited that day) said she was voting Republican and supporting President Donald Trump.

“I agree with like pretty much everything that the president has done. I think it’s great,” she said. “And I think it’s really sad that people just hate him instead of looking at what he’s done that’s been for the good of the country.”

One of those haters lived right down the street. Nick, a retired union member who was working in his garage when Justin approached, called himself a Democrat who is “a pretty conservative guy. I’m a middle-of-the-road guy.” But MAGA Republicans are a political bridge too far.

“They’re a bunch of hypocrites,” Nick said. “Isn’t the Republican Party supposed to be conservative and support the rule of law and things like that? The deficit — this president’s putting more money onto our kids than any other president has ever done.”

When Justin reminded him that Trump isn’t on the ballot in November, Nick shot back, “But he’s telling everybody vote like I’m on the ballot!”

Touché.

And so it goes on the Granite State campaign trail for the candidates, volunteers, and paid staffers knocking on New Hampshire doors.

An AFP door hanger in the NH U.S. Senate race.

Door knocking is a common political strategy, but campaign veterans say it’s more common in New England states than in other regions like the South and Midwest. And the volume of door knocking for GOP candidates has surged this cycle as organizations like AFP and Turning Point USA spend millions to put activists on the street.

Justin says AFP canvassers have been working in New Hampshire since the spring. One particularly enthusiastic and effective canvasser in Manchester has knocked on 20,000 doors on his own. “He loves the work. He’s even lost weight and says he’s in great shape.”

AFP Action estimates it has knocked close to 300,000 doors and invested more than $11.5 million in New Hampshire voter contact efforts. On Wednesday, the organization announced it’s investing another $4 million in support for Sununu, including “digital, radio, and TV, and canvassers at doors across the state through Election Day.”

“Granite Staters have to ask who will stand up for New Hampshire and who has let us down when it comes time to vote,” said AFP Action senior adviser Greg Moore. “Chris Pappas has had every chance to push back on the socialist wing taking over his party, yet he has stayed silent.”

Pappas’ name did come up some during the Bedford canvass, though not often. “Chris Pappas, he’s been in office for how long? And what has he really done?” one woman asked. “He keeps saying he’s going to do this and he’s going to do that, and he hasn’t really done too much.”

Sununu was the most common topic of conversation, even more than Trump—though he came up pretty often, too.

Several Bedford voters spontaneously mentioned personal connections to either John Sununu or his family. One woman said her husband had worked with one of the Sununu brothers. An older gentleman offered, “The family has always been good for New Hampshire.”

Even voters who didn’t sound likely to vote for Sununu had a kind word. It was the Republican Party they were rejecting.

A younger man wasted no time telling Justin he wasn’t voting Republican and wasn’t interested in hearing about Sununu’s independence from Trump.

“The Republican Senate, the Congress, they’re all complicit,” he said. “Anybody who decides that they’re going to affiliate themselves with the current Republican Party means they’re not going to get my vote.”

Justin politely thanked everyone for their time. If nobody was home, he would leave a door hanger on the knob with a pro-Sununu message on one side and an anti-Pappas attack on the other.

While Republicans are generally down on their party’s chances in November, Justin was optimistic. “This year I actually feel more excitement (from Republicans) than I did in 2022 when I was door knocking for Karoline Leavitt.”

The news from the doors was also positive from state House Republicans knocking doors for their own races.

Considered one of the top door knockers by her fellow Republicans, state House candidate Shanun Carey of Goffstown said voters have been “excited” when she’s knocked on their door. “They seem surprised to see the actual candidate at their door.”

Carey estimates she’s knocked on between 800 and 1,000 doors and spoken to hundreds of voters. Their top issue? “Property taxes. Definitely. Even independents support it. They’re just so frustrated with the costs and they want us to do something. That’s the first thing.”

The second thing?

“This was a little surprising, but they want to know if I’m a Republican, or a MAGA Republican. I tell them I’m a conservative who wants to pass conservative ideas, and they seem OK with that.”

Sen. Victoria Sullivan, whose Manchester district is viewed as one of the most vulnerable for the GOP, also said that property taxes were the top issue voters want to talk about as she’s knocked on approximately 2,000 doors so far this election. Energy prices are also top of mind, she said.

“Everyone’s talking about the cost of gasoline, and it’s high. But heating oil and energy prices, we’ve got some of the highest in the country. It’s hurting people.”

And is Trump hurting her with local voters in Manchester?

“Well, I had one guy today who said, ‘I hate Trump, but I’m voting for you.’”

Like Justin and Shanun Carey, Sullivan said she’s not running into dispirited Republicans at her doors. “Just a lot of people who are really receptive, who wanted to talk and who are excited about getting out to vote.”e

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.