MARCO ISLAND, Fla. — Gov. Chris Sununu was busy making the rounds this week, as he attended his final annual winter meeting of the Republican Governors Association after eight years steering New Hampshire.

Sununu is in his final weeks of serving as Granite State governor, after announcing last year that he wouldn’t seek an unprecedented fifth two-year term in the Corner Office. (New Hampshire and Vermont are the only two states in the nation to hold gubernatorial elections every two years)

Speaking with a reporter along the sidelines of the RGA conference, which was held at a waterfront resort in southwest Florida, the governor looked ahead to his life after leaving office.

“I’m excited to get back to the private sector. I like businesses, I like deal sourcing,” he said. “I’m not sure exactly what the private sector is going to bring, but I think it’s going to be pretty exciting.”

New Hampshire, a perennial swing state, will likely have a competitive U.S. Senate contest in 2026 when longtime Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a former governor, is up for re-election. And Sununu, who leaves office with still impressive approval ratings, is likely to be courted by national Republicans to run for the Senate.

But Sununu reiterated what he said in July.

“Definitely ruling out running for the Senate in 2026. Yeah, definitely not on my dance card,” he said.

The governor predicted that Republicans would have a good candidate.

“There’s no question about it,” he said. “A couple of different folks that might be interested in running, I think that’d be fantastic. We’ve had an all-Democrat [congressional] delegation for a long time. I think the people in the state, especially with Kelly’s convincing win, would love a different voice, would love just some sort of change.”

Sununu will be succeeded in the corner office by Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte, a fellow Republican, former state attorney general and former U.S. senator.

The governor was a top surrogate on the campaign trail and on the airwaves for Ayotte, who pledged to continue the Sununu agenda.

He wouldn’t say if he felt like Ayotte’s nearly nine-and-half-point win over former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, the Democratic Party gubernatorial nominee, was a victory for him and his agenda.

“It was a victory for New Hampshire,” he said.

“Kelly’s going to be phenomenal. She has that experience as an attorney general, as U.S. senator. She understands how the systems work,” Sununu emphasized. “Our transition is already going incredibly smoothly; discussions virtually every single day about all aspects of government, where it’s going, how to build good teams and, most importantly … the opportunities to listen to what’s happening in the communities.”

Sununu said he’ll be available for Ayotte if called upon. 

“She’ll have my cell number,” he said. “I don’t know if she’ll need it, because I think she’s going to be fantastic on her own, but she’ll always have my cell number.”

And pointing to former Govs. John Lynch and now-Sen. Maggie Hassan, his Democrat predecessors as governor, who Sununu said shared their cellphone numbers with him, he noted the corner office goes beyond partisan politics. 

“We want New Hampshire to be successful,” he said. “So, it’s not just me helping Kelly out. It is always a team effort. She’s going to have a host of people that she can lean on for any advice when she needs it.”

While Sununu campaigned for Ayotte and down-ballot Republicans, he kept his distance from former President Donald Trump, who won a convincing White House victory earlier this month, further strengthening the president-elect’s grip over the GOP.

But Sununu, who has long been a vocal critic of the former and future president, says that there’s still room in the Republican Party for those outside of the MAGA and America First base.

“The party is a big-tent party. There’s no question about it,” he argued.

Sununu, who was a top surrogate and supporter of former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Trump’s final challenger in the 2024 GOP presidential primaries, backed the Republican nominee in the general election.

“It was a huge victory across the country, and the people of this country have spoken very loudly and unequivocally,” Sununu said of Trump’s electoral college and popular vote victory.

And the governor acknowledged that Trump is “the standard-bearer of the party” and “the voice of the party.”

“But this is a very large party. If it wasn’t, he (Trump) wouldn’t have won. If it wasn’t, we wouldn’t have had convincing wins all across this country in a variety of different states,” Sununu said.

Asked if there’s another run for office in his future, the 50-year-old governor deflected and said he’s “excited for the private sector.”

But he didn’t entirely shut the door, adding, “We’ll see what political chapters write themselves down the road.”