Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is reportedly planning to enter the 2024 Republican Party presidential primary next week during an event in New Hampshire.
Axios reported that Christie, 60, will make the announcement at Saint Anselm College at 6:30 p.m. EST on Tuesday when he is expected to hit “a more hopeful note aimed at America’s ‘exhausted majority.'”
The New York Times reported that his campaign will likely be run by Maria Comella and Mike DuHaime and that Anthony Scaramucci will support the campaign. The focus of Christie’s campaign is reportedly going to be aggressively taking on former President Donald Trump after being a close ally of his for years.
In 2016, Christie got out of the Republican presidential primary after he performed poorly in New Hampshire despite campaigning the hardest there. After dropping out, he endorsed Trump ahead of Super Tuesday. Christie was one of the key people who helped Trump prepare for the presidential debates and advised the president throughout his time in office, the Times noted.
However, Christie’s break with Trump came after Trump began claiming that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, the report added.
“Tonight is the beginning of the case against Donald Trump,” Christie said while speaking at a town hall event in New Hampshire last month. “Donald Trump is a TV star, nothing more, nothing less. Let me suggest to you that in putting him back in the White House, the reruns will be worse than the original show.”
Christie said that if Republicans choose Trump as the nominee, “we’re going to get what we deserve.”
Christie hit Trump hard earlier this month during an interview on Hugh Hewitt over reports that Trump may not participate in primary debates.
“And to the extent that President Trump doesn’t want to participate in them, people should wonder why,” Christie said. “And I think it’s because he doesn’t have a lot of serious answers for the problems that are facing the country right now. All he wants to do is go back and re-prosecute the 2020 election because his feelings are hurt. He’s a child in that regard.”
“I’m sorry to see that Donald Trump feels like if he gets on the stage, he’s at risk of losing his lead,” he added. “If, in fact, his ideas are so great, if his leadership is so outstanding, then his lead will only increase if he gets on the stage, not decrease. But obviously, he’s afraid. He’s afraid to get on the stage against people who are serious.”
If he announces, Christie will join a field that so far includes Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, tech businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, talk radio personality Larry Elder, and Michigan billionaire Perry Johnson. More candidates are expected to join, including Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence.
Christie “probably faces the steepest hill of any of the ’24 GOP candidates” to become the party’s nominee, polling analyst Steve Kornacki said.
Chris Christie, set to enter the race next Tuesday, probably faces the steepest hill of any of the '24 GOP candidates.
In this week's Monmouth national poll, nearly half – 47% – of GOP voters viewed him unfavorably, and only 21% favorably – by *far* the worst of anyone tested: pic.twitter.com/CLfouUCrny
— Steve Kornacki (@SteveKornacki) May 31, 2023
Christie was known in 2016 for doing serious damage to Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-FL) presidential campaign after relentlessly going after him during the GOP primary debates.
Kornacki said that Christie entering the race could be not great news for Trump because Christie has “telegraph[ed] an intent to go after Trump with a focus, relentlessness and determination that no one showed in ’16.”
“So while the general assumption is that Trump benefits with every new candidate who enters, I do wonder if Christie could be an exception — that he ends up serving as a battering ram for DeSantis (or whoever has the clearest shot at Trump) in a key moment — a reversal of ’16,” he said. “The effect may not be to boost his own chances of winning, but more to land meaningful blows against Trump that no other Republican has figured out how to land, thereby boosting a non-Trump candidate.”
Republican strategist Mike Murphy said during an interview earlier this month that Christie’s campaign would effectively be Christie “lighting a stick of dynamite and running right at Donald Trump.”