Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will launch his presidential campaign on Tuesday, joining a crowded and growing GOP primary field.
Christie will announce his candidacy at a town hall-style event in New Hampshire, a key early primary state. The event is hosted by the New Hampshire Institute of Politics out of Manchester.
He will join a field currently led by former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Other leading candidates include former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum are expected to launch their own campaigns Wednesday.
Christie will have significant ground to make up, com first polls compiled by FiveThirtyEight showing him in the single digits, badly behind both Trump and DeSantis.
A Monmouth University poll released last week also showed Christie’s favorability rating among Republican voters deeply underwater, with just 21 percent viewing him favorably and 47 percent viewing him unfavorably.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks at the Institute of Politics in St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH on March 27, 2023.
Brian Snyder/Reuters, FILE
Christie’s campaign, which is expected to mount a sweeping offensive against Trump, marks a full-circle moment for the former governor, who quickly endorsed Trump after dropping out of the 2016 presidential race and remained at large part a vocal ally during Trump’s four years at the White. house
However, Christie broke with Trump during the January 6, 2021 insurrection and has remained one of his strongest critics within the GOP, including as an ABC News contributor who appears frequently on shows like ” This Week”.
Christie has lamented what he sees as a lack of candidates in the GOP field who can adequately attack Trump head-on. He has often cited a 2016 debate in which he criticized Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., for giving canned answers, which many believe helped sink Rubio’s bid.
“You better have somebody on stage who can do to him what I did to Marco, because that’s the only thing that’s going to defeat Donald Trump,” Christie said earlier this year.
Still, he insisted he wouldn’t join the race just to take on Trump if he didn’t see a path for himself, saying he’s “not a paid assassin.”
He is also expected to campaign heavily in New Hampshire, given the state’s independent streak and history of electing Republicans seen as more centrist, where Christie’s more anti-Trump message may resonate in deep-red states like Iowa and South Carolina, which are also. first nomination contests next year.
