Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie became the latest Republican to enter the 2024 presidential campaign, adding an ally-turned-critic of Donald Trump to an already crowded primary field.
Christie, 60, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission ahead of a town hall meeting in New Hampshire Tuesday night where he was expected to formally announce his candidacy.
His entry swells the number of candidates in the race to more than 10 with other potential contenders still expected to announce, potentially recreating the dynamic that allowed Trump to divide and conquer the Republican field in 2016. Christie is the only one of Trump’s former rivals to return for a rematch. He dropped out of that race and endorsing Trump after finishing in sixth place in New Hampshire.
As before, Christie is signaling a strategy that would target the Granite State, launching his campaign with a town hall meeting at Saint Anselm’s College near Manchester. New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu said Monday he’s not running and will instead lend his voice to the anti-Trump effort as a non-candidate.
Read more: Sununu Won’t Run for President, Will Endeavor to Stop Trump
Known for a bold rhetorical style that presaged Trump, Christie served two terms as governor of New Jersey, from 2010 to 2018. He led Trump’s presidential transition and headed his opioid commission. But he broke with Trump shortly after the election when Trump refused to concede to President Joe Biden.
Christie has criticized other GOP candidates’ reluctance to challenge Trump directly for fear of alienating his supporters, saying the only way to defeat the former president is to take him on.
“You can’t beat Donald Trump by playing bumper pool and hitting it off three cushions and hope it goes in the hole,” Christie said on ABC’s “This Week” on May 14. “I think they are all making a marked mistake.”
Christie’s strategy will rely heavily on a strong performance in primary debates. The former federal prosecutor and ABC news political analyst debated Trump as a candidate six times in the 2016 primary, and helped prepare Trump for general election debates as a stand-in for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton and later Biden.
Christie’s allies have established the super political action committee Tell It Like It Is that trades on Christie’s brash-talking New Jersey brand and could give a boost to his long-shot bid. Unlike campaigns, super PACs can raise and spend unlimited funds to support candidates.
Trump, though, has suggested he’ll skip the first two GOP debates to avoid giving oxygen to low-polling candidates, and it may be difficult for Christie to reach the minimum thresholds the Republican National Committee has set for participating, including getting at least 1% support in polls and at least 40,000 unique donors from 20 or more states. Trump has been dominating small-dollar contributions.
Read more: GOP Field Faces Polling, Donor Thresholds in Aug. 23 Debate
Sarah Longwell, who conducts focus groups with Republican voters and publishes the anti-Trump website The Bulwark, said it’s good that Christie is joining the race to take on Trump. But she said there’s no GOP voter appetite for Christie and other candidates who forged their identities in the “pre-Trump” era.
“They see them as establishment, they see them as regular politicians,” Longwell said. “And the term ‘regular politician’ is basically the kiss of death with voters now. It’s one of the reasons you see Trump trying to paint Ron DeSantis as a regular politician.”
Polls show DeSantis, Florida’s governor, as the top challenger to Trump for the nomination and that Christie is not popular. A Monmouth University poll released May 30 showed Christie had a 47% unfavorably rating among Republican and GOP-leaning voters with only 21% favorable.