MANCHESTER, NH – Former Republican Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey said his trip Monday to New Hampshire, the state that has the first primaries and second overall voting in the GOP presidential nomination calendar, will help him decide whether to “go into battle” and launch a GOP presidential campaign in 2024.
Christie said a key to that decision will be whether he sees a path to victory over former President Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
Christie will headline Monday night at a town hall-style event at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, which has been a must-stop for White House contenders and would-be contenders from both major parties for more than two decades. Message from town hall and a later-night dinner with close friends and supporters in the Granite State was first reported by Fox News earlier this month.
The former two-term governor, who unsuccessfully ran for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination and is considered one of the best communicators in the GOP, has said repeatedly for more than a year that he is “considering” another bid. to be released at the White House in 2024.
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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signs the iconic wooden eggs after speaking on “Politics and Eggs” at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, on March 21, 2022 in Goffstown, New Hampshire. (Fox news)
Christie told Fox News Digital ahead of his trip that he plans to “go there and talk to people in New Hampshire — who I know are the most informed voters in the country about things that I think are important in the world and in our country right now – and to see how they respond to that, and to see what they think about things that are important to me.”
When asked if a positive response from voters will further encourage him to run for the White House again, Christie said: “There’s no question that if you find yourself connecting with people, you’re more encouraged to get out and about. to go and try it. to take the fight.”
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However, he stressed that he and wife Mary Pat “have not made any decisions yet, and I think this is all part of that process. Now that I’ve been through it before, there’s a lot less mystery than it was for me the first time.”
Christie’s said he will make a decision for 2024 in the next 45 to 60 days. He explained that the three factors that go into his decision are “seeing a path to winning…believing that at that moment you have something to offer the country that it needs to hear”, and whether he will receive the support of his family would have.
“If I answer yes to all three of these questions, then I run away. If I answer no to any of these questions, then I won’t,” he said.
Trump became the first major Republican to announce his 2024 candidacy when he launched his third consecutive campaign for the White House in mid-November, shortly after the 2022 midterm elections. He remains the clear front-runner in the latest GOP polls for presidential nominations.
DeSantis will remain on the 2024 sidelines as of now, but he is widely expected to enter the race, and polls suggest he would be Trump’s closest rival. In an interview last week on Fox Nation, the Florida governor said to “stay tuned” when asked about his political future.
When asked if he can compete with Trump and DeSantis, who have bigger national followings and bigger war chests, Christie said “we’re trying to find out.”
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“I think the most important thing is to get out there, be authentic, be yourself and see how people respond to that,” he said.
Referring to New Hampshire, where the presidential primary emphasis is on connections between candidates and voters and retail politics, Christie said “war chest and name ID” don’t really matter.
“Things like that so early on really aren’t that important. It’s more about how you connect with voters and what you have to say. If that’s something that resonates with them, they’ll go in your direction,” Christie said.
Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie speaks at an annual Republican Jewish Coalition leadership meeting on Saturday, November 19, 2022 in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Christie put all his chips in his campaign for president in New Hampshire seven years ago. However, his campaign crashed and burned down after a disappointing and distant sixth-place finish in New Hampshire, well behind Trump, who crushed the competition in the primaries and pushed him to the nomination and eventually the White House.
Christie became the first of the other GOP 2016 contenders to support Trump and was for many years a top external adviser to the then president. However, the two fell out after Trump’s failed attempts to reverse his 2020 election loss to President Biden.
He reiterated his message that “we lost in 2018, in 2020, in 2022, all with Donald Trump leading the way. There’s a lot of concern from donors about that and their desire that our primary is robust and that there are alternatives that could potentially gain from general election.”
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Christie huddled with many of the larger donors in the conservative movement who attended an American Enterprise Institute conference two weeks ago in Sea Island, Georgia.
“I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations with donors over the past few weeks,” he said.
Paul Steinhauser is a political reporter from New Hampshire.
