Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans to launch his second presidential campaign next week in New Hampshire, POLITICO has confirmed.
Christie's entry into the 2024 contest, first reported by Axios, has all the makings for a potentially vitriolic primary as a small but growing field of candidates tries to keep former President Donald Trump from returning to the White House. Christie, 60, has been one of the most outspoken Republican critics of Trump after a falling out with him over his lies of a stolen election in 2020.
And Christie is perhaps best suited to challenge Trump on a debate stage and on the campaign trail. Long before Trump arrived as the dominant force in American politics, Christie laid claim to a blunt and plainspoken style of politics that endeared him to Republicans nationally.
But Christie's fortunes have changed considerably since Trump rose to power. He placed sixth in the New Hampshire primary in 2016, then quickly endorsed Trump and became one of his most ardent defenders until the 2020 election. He's polled poorly so far in the 2024 contest, and on Tuesday a national Monmouth University poll showed Christie was the only one of 10 potential candidates to receive a net negative rating from Republican voters.
Christie is expected to launch his 2024 run Tuesday at St. Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H., Axios reported. A source familiar with Christie's plans confirmed the news outlet's reporting.
The impending campaign bears a strong resemblance to the one Christie launched eight years ago, with a stable of longtime advisers expected to run the operation as well as a new super PAC, Tell It Like It Is. His 2016 campaign slogan was "Telling It Like It Is."
Christie has said he would only enter the race if he saw a path to victory, and that he would not join the race as a "paid assassin." As a former federal prosecutor with a sharp tongue, though, Christie's political acumen gives him perhaps the best chance of anyone to make the case against Trump. Unlike other candidates who have avoided directly criticizing Trump, Christie has taken him head on, calling the former president a "puppet of Putin" for his position on the Ukraine war and blaming him for Republican losses the last several years.
Christie has also taken aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is also seeking the party nomination, over his feud with Disney.
"If I decide to get in, I think everybody who's watched me publicly over the last 13 years knows that I won't be a wallflower," Christie said at a forum hosted by Semafor last month. "If it turns out that I'm on a debate stage in August of this year and Donald Trump decides to be on it, you can be sure that we'll have some exchanges that I hope will be illuminating to the public about him and me."
