Washington Republicans have voiced their appetite for Sununu to run as Hassan faces her first re-election battle as a senator.

Sununu sailed to re-election as governor in 2020, winning roughly 65% of the vote, despite former President Trump losing the state by seven points. Roughly seven months later, the governor’s approval rating remains high, with a recent University of New Hampshire survey putting it at 69%.

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“If Gov. Sununu decides to run for Senate, I think he would be the No. 1 Republican recruit in the country,” said veteran New Hampshire GOP strategist Jim Merrill.

The Sununu family is a political dynasty in the Granite State. His father, John Henry, served as the state’s governor for most of the 1980s and his brother, John Edward, served as a US senator and congressman.

A UNH survey released in February showed Sununu leading Hassan 48% to 46%, within the margin of error. A Morning Consult tracking poll shows an even wider gap in their approval ratings. Seventy-three percent of New Hampshire voters said they approved of Sununu, while 55% said they approved of Hassan.

Market Pulse:Whether Sununu will run or not remains an open question. The governor addressed the speculation on Tuesday: “Washington is a really tough place. It’s not very pleasant. I know I could do well there, but I don’t know if it would do me well,” Sununu said. What we do know is that the market tracking the 2022 US Senate race in New Hampshire is tight.

Growing interest from Republicans to reel in the governor to face Hassan has seen their odds increase over the last 30 days. While the generic Democratic candidate is favored at 52¢ to 48¢ entering trading today, the Republican contract has gained 5¢ and 8¢ over 90 days. Sununu is also the early favorite in the 2022 New Hampshire Republican Senate primary, leading Ayotte 64¢ to 15¢.

McCloskey’s campaign adds another controversial candidate for the GOP in an electoral contest that Republicans cannot afford to lose. The GOP is already facing a headache over the candidacy of former Gov. Eric Greitens (R), who was chased from office in 2018 over allegations of campaign finance violations and sexual misconduct. Charges in both matters were dropped.

“If Greitens is the Republican nominee, Democrats have a shot at this Senate seat,” said Gregg Keller, a senior Republican strategist in Missouri who has not picked a candidate yet.

Missouri Republicans have been burned by a divided primary field before. In 2012, then-Rep. Todd Akin (R) won the GOP primary with just 36% of the vote ahead of former state Treasurer Sarah Steelman (R) and businessman John Brunner (R) — and with the help of then-Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO), who took the unusual step of advertising against Akin during the primary. McCaskill went on to beat Akin by a 15-point margin, the last time a Democrat won a Senate election in an increasingly Republican state.

McCloskey has indicated that he will lean into his reputation as a “fighter” as he wages his Senate bid: “I’ve spent 36 years fighting for the rights of my fellow Missourians. And Missourians want a fighter who will stand up against cancel culture, the poison of critical race theory, the violent mobs and rising crime, and the spread of socialism.”

Market Pulse: Greitens leads Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt (R), who is expected to rally establishment support, in the 2022 Missouri Republican Senate market by 7¢ — 37¢ to 30¢ — entering trading today. Greitens and Schmitt contracts have been virtually glued to each other since the end of March with no more than 7¢ separating the pair. McCloskey’s contract, meanwhile, was added yesterday and closed its first day of trading at 17¢ — a strong showing that places him in third and ahead of other well-known names from Missouri’s Republican political sphere.

And, as it stands, traders believe strongly right now that Republicans will hold onto Blunt’s Missouri Senate seat, pricing a yes outcome at 89¢.

The poll, in which respondents fill out mock voter forms and place them in boxes to preserve their privacy, showed Castillo had 51.1% support, while Fujimori had 48.9%. The margin of error for the survey was 2.8%.

Castillo was until recently the clear front-runner to win the second round of the presidential election on June 6. He is a political newcomer who has caused market jitters by pledging to rewrite Peru’s constitution and nationalize mineral resources, but has since sought to soften his stance to appeal more to the political center.

Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned former President Alberto Fujimori, has steadily chipped away at Castillo’s support and has polled stronger in the cities, while he leads in the country’s interior, from where he hails.

In a document outlining plans for his first 100 days in office, Castillo said he would raise taxes and royalties on Peru’s key mining sector and renegotiate the tax contracts of large companies. The increased revenue would then be used to substantially increase investment in education and health. Castillo has justified his plan to up taxes, saying copper production costs in Peru — the world’s second-largest producer of the red metal — are “the lowest in the world” while prices are at record highs.

Fujimori has also pledged to distribute Peru’s mineral wealth more evenly.

Another poll released on Sunday by the Peruvian Studies Institute (IEP) for the newspaper La República showed that Castillo led Fujimori in voting intentions by 36.5% to 29.6%. That survey had a margin of error of 2.8 points.

Market Pulse: Fujimori’s contract in the 2021 Peruvian presidential election market rose 6¢ on Tuesday and moved her nearer to the 50¢ barrier. She is up 27¢ since hitting a 30-day low on April 25. Castillo, meanwhile, is going the other direction, losing 22¢ over the same period. He leads Fujimori 55¢ to 45¢ at 6 a.m. EDT this morning.

Something to keep an eye on is the margin of victory market which finds the top two contracts — Castillo by 5% or more and Fujimori by 5% or more — at opposite ends of the bracket spectrum. Though, Castillo’s top contract is priced nearly double that of Fujimori’s at 32¢ to 15¢ entering trading today.