Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has gone on the record with the Washington Examiner stating that he intendeds to make a formal decision as to whether or not he will seek the GOP nomination for president in 2024 within the next few months.
Christie has had an up and down media presence since 2016 when he first ran for president, having dropped out of the race to serve on the Trump campaign, and later publishing a book where he did not speak as highly of his former opponent turned boss, President Donald Trump, as he did during the campaign trail against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.
Since President Trump’s loss in 2020, Christie has most notably been against Trump’s third attempt to take the White House, going as far as to say in February that Trump was “sloppy” and the only “man to lose to Biden outside of Delaware.”
#EXCLUSIVE: @ChrisChristie laid out a time frame for when he will decide whether to jump into the 2024 race for president.
"Next 45 to 60 days," he told @dcexaminer, noting that a campaign is still something he is actively considering.https://t.co/KKo3PwLjnU
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) March 16, 2023
Let the Past be the Past?
At another point in time, Christie was seen as a rising star within the Republican Party nationally during his first term as governor of New Jersey. One could see how his confrontational style of politics and blue collar talking points, mixed with often blunt talk about contentious issues, paved a way for then-citizen Trump to eventually come in and perform better than Christie, sucking up all his base and attention.
Despite his 15-minutes of fame, Christie didn’t take the opportunity to run for the GOP nomination at the height of his popularity in 2012, and by the time he finally did enter the race in 2016, Trump had all but trampled on whatever potential he still had.
“I think running for president of the United States is an intensely personal decision,” said Christie to the Examiner. “And that’s one that anybody who’s considering it should have the right to make on their own regardless of anybody else’s thoughts on it.”
While Christie has argued that any Republican can beat Biden but Trump, all the major polls indicate that GOP voters want Trump back by a wide margin as their nominee, and of the announced and yet-to-be announced candidates, he is perhaps the only one who could defeat Biden come the general election.
A Tough Field to Enter
Christie isn’t the only Republican who thinks they have a shot of overthrowing the current frontrunner, Donald Trump.
The Republican field thus far that Christie could potentially be jumping into includes former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who like Christie was also a popular governor when she served as the executive of South Carolina, and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy who holds no prior elected office.
Others expected to make a decision by this summer include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is trailing Trump in GOP voter polls but is regularly and sizably second place compared to other Republicans. Former Vice President Mike Pence has also shown the signs of ramping up a run, as well as former Secretary of Defense Mike Pompeo.
Recently one potential contender made it clear he had no intentions of running in 2024. Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan announced several weeks ago he wouldn’t seek the nomination simply to “sell books” or weaken the party’s chance of nominating a strong candidate.
And by a ‘strong candidate’, Hogan means anyone but Trump.
Christie said of Hogan’s decision that “I have enormous respect for Gov. Hogan. He’s my friend, and I have great respect for his decision. I think it’ll be a significantly smaller field than it was in 2016. And I think that it would be good for us, given all the losing we’ve done over the last four years, to have a robust primary.”
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