Chris Christie is set to announce his bid for the presidency tonight
Chris Christie — former NJ governor — has teased his Presidential bid for months. And today is the day he’s all but guaranteed to turn his hints into hit ads because, at 6:30 pm, he has a special announcement at New Hampshire College.
Candidates, Candidates Everywhere
Now, with DeSantis, Pence, Haley, Scott, Ramaswamy, Elder, and a couple of others I’ve forgotten all officially declared, the Republican 2024 farmyard is shaping up to be quite the crowded affair. And in a few hours, we’ll find Christie in the mix.
So what does the New Jersyman add to the batter but another Republican who might net 3 percent of the vote if he snags enough free media? You don’t need a political science degree to figure it out. Christie is doing one thing no other Republican is willing to do: Doom their campaign by taking direct, bare-knuckled swings at Trump.
Even DeSantis — irritated by Trump he so clearly has become — deals with Trump’s name like its MacBeth, and he’s standing backstage at a theater. On record, the closest Ron gets to besmirching Trump’s brand is alluding to his shortcomings, both as President and party leader post-2020. If you haven’t listened yet to DeSantis’s attempts to tiptoe around the giant, he does so by meekly referencing the unfinished Mexico border wall or Republican underperformance in 2020 and 2022.
And the other higher-profile candidates don’t seem to want to kick Trump off the stagecoach at all. Haley sounds like a surrogate, aiming only at DeSantis for being a mini, more meager model of Trump. Lord only knows what type of offensive Pence will roll out toward his former boss.
But back to the New Jersyite.
Where Does Christie Fit?
Christie, clearly, is uninterested in poaching the 20-30 percent of Republicans who have that high-school crush-level attachment to Trump, those that DeSantis seems to think he can woo by wearing a version of Trump’s cologne. But Christie’s hopes to scrape together enough undecided GOP voters — most of whom align with Trump ideologically — to build a serious coalition seems about as sound of a gamble as betting on an English Bulldog at the Greyhound track.
All of this leads to the question: Why the hell is Christie running?
Christie: Assassin or Legitimate Candidate?
The first and least obvious answer is that he could win… I’m serious. Or, at least, I’m serious that he sees a narrow path to victory. Chris Christie spoke out against accusations that he’s running a kamikaze-style campaign, telling Politico, “I’m not a paid assassin.”
In Christie’s mind, he has insight into Trump. And there’s truth to this; Christie understands Trump’s weaknesses and insecurities. Even more so than Pence.
Trump and Christie have very similar personalities. They’re East-coast oxen. They plow forward. They say things and don’t feel the need to return to what they’ve said after saying it. And they’re showmen. So, concerning how Christie will handle Trump, he’s hoping to rig the trail with some psychological booby traps given he thinks he’s got the only shed with the right tool: A loud and merciless truth.
Christie isn’t simply willing to light firecrackers; he’s looking to go full pyrotechnician. Just recall the 2016 slaughterhouse: Christie loves a healthy bite of a politician’s jugular. Remember his 15-second derailment of the Rubio campaign?
Unlike Rubio, Trump’s momentum will be harder to spoil. Still, if Christie gets Trump to slobber and scowl in from of large audiences just enough to overstep the point of amusement, there may be a decent chuck of his support may revisit their initial flirtation with DeSantis: Do I really want all of Trump’s crazy back in the oval office?… there really wasn’t THAT much substance about the election fraud…their agendas aren’t all that different… I can tell my daughter I didn’t vote for him in the primary, at least.
Chris Christie 2024: More than a Gut Cleanse?
It could work. But it’s unlikely to do enough damage. For one, much of Christie’s criticisms of Trump, especially those about the 2020 election or his being found liable for sexual assault, will prove ineffective to desensitized GOP voters. Perhaps there’s a future-oriented angle, “What if he loses again? For who will you erect a noose this time? How much is too much?”
But It’s much more likely that Christie’s entry aids Trump, as it detracts from DeSantis. Although you have to think that Christie is hoping, as consolation, for something else.
The other reason behind Christie’s campaign, which ties into the belief that he could beat Trump, is that he wants to clean his laundry. In 2016, Christie was one of those candidates, like Kasich (but, ultimately, unlike Kasich), who many thought wouldn’t endorse Trump. Well — he did endorse and kept on advising him through the 2020 election.
It was only after January 6th that Christie began torching Trump. So you have to think that Christie, who probably has only one more semi-serious campaign left in him, would like to go out on an oppositional note toward the man that skinned and bled his party as he sat there and gave pointers.
All politicians consider legacy, and Christie clearly recognizes how the condescension of posterity has already bitten, and continues biting, those who’ve backed Trump. He recognizes his perfect opportunity to strike while the iron’s hot. After all, when the fall is all that’s left, it matters a great deal.
… and would you look at that. Just as I finished typing, it’s been announced: Chris Christie has filed that paperwork.
Nathan has extensive experience as a media strategist and copywriter.
