Chris Christie formally enters the ’24 race as he takes aim at Trump
Chris Christie, the former governor of New Jersey who was overshadowed by Donald J. Trump in the 2016 presidential primaries, filed paperwork Tuesday saying he would seek the 2024 Republican nomination, set up a rematch with the former president and the field of GOP candidates.
In his second run for president, Mr. Christie, 60, has positioned himself as the person most willing to defeat both Mr. Trump, his former friend-turned-opponent, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is second in line. to attack. for months in almost every public Republican primary. Mr. Christie’s presence in the race could be unwelcome to Mr. DeSantis, for whom any additional candidate hurts his ability to consolidate support.
Mr. Christie, set to announce his participation Tuesday night at a New Hampshire town hall-style event, has already begun building an aggressive case against Mr. Trump based on the former president’s policies — namely that he made some promises that he never kept. That case is one that other hopefuls have generally sidestepped, instead largely avoiding Mr. Trump’s name. In contrast, Mr. Christie has gone straight to him.
He has mocked Mr Trump’s dwindling mob, calling him a loser and saying he crossed a line with his actions that led to a pro-Trump mob attacking the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
And he has described himself as able to secure the nomination. “I am the viable alternative to Trump,” Christie recently said The everyday beast.
Still, Mr. Christie’s road to winning the nomination is complicated. He’s a Northeast Republican who hasn’t gotten caught up in the culture wars of the Trump era. His main path would necessarily pass through New Hampshire, a state where he ran a fierce campaign in 2016 but ultimately came up short. And to gain traction, he will have to rely on the attention of candidate debates.
His campaign will depend heavily on media coverage and the agility to travel to places where it is most likely. New Hampshire is the state where he will start his campaign, but not necessarily where he will settle.
He still has to meet the Republican National Committee’s criteria to get on that debate stage, which includes 40,000 unique donors.
But if he makes it, as a former friend of Mr. Trump, he has a great understanding of the former president and how to get under his skin. Depending on how the race goes, Mr. Christie’s main impact could be to seriously damage Mr. Trump, whom he has vehemently attacked. But he’s been cheered on by a number of Republican donors and senior officials in recent weeks, especially as Mr. DeSantis stumbled before he even became a formal candidate.
Mr. Christie, a former federal prosecutor, will be in a unique position to attack Mr. Trump’s various legal problems as he is the first former president to be indicted and may face additional charges in other cases.
Still, Mr. Christie will face questions about his conversion from Trump supporter to slanderer. (Mr. Trump called Mr. Christie “an opportunist” after he left office.)
Mr. Christie was a favorite of some Republicans to run for the nomination in the 2012 campaign, when he was one of the most famous governors in the country, known for his dealings with union leaders and selling himself as knowing how to manage a budget had to balance. But instead of running that year, as his star rose, he chose to focus on running for re-election, drawing national attention for his response during the devastating Hurricane Sandy — and criticism from some Republicans for running with President Barack Obama appeared in New Jersey. days before the election at an event related to the aftermath of the storm.
The anger among Republicans foreshadowed a political environment in which Republicans punished their elected officials for their friendship with Democrats.
By the time Mr Christie announced his candidacy for the presidency in 2015, when there was no longer a Democratic incumbent, his candidacy had been hampered by the so-called Bridgegate political revenge scandal that engulfed his government two years earlier. Mr. Christie denied involvement in the alleged repayment plan that saw lanes closed on the George Washington Bridge to retaliate against a political opponent of the governor, and convictions against two defendants were overturned by the US Supreme Court in 2020. But by then, Mr. Christie’s political fortunes had been damaged.
After dropping out of the 2016 race, Mr. Christie endorsed Mr. Trump in February, one of the first prominent national Republicans to do so. That endorsement was valuable to Mr. Trump when he tried to appeal to Republicans who were skeptical of him because of his comments calling for a ban on Muslims entering the country, or his misogynistic statements about the Fox News host. Megan Kelly.