Just as it was teased last week that he would, former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) officially entered the Republican presidential primary on Tuesday night. This is his second run, as he previously ran in 2016 as well, also against former and potentially future President Donald Trump.
Christie had eventually endorsed Trump in 2016, and was the head of his transition planning team as well as the chair of the Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission under the Trump presidency. Their relationship ultimately turned sour, though, Trump made it clear that there's still bad blood in the form of a Truth Social post.
"How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about," Trump said in his post. "Hard to watch, boring, but that’s what you get from a failed Governor (New Jersey) who left office with a 7% approval rating and then got run out of New Hampshire. This time, it won’t be any different!"
Spokesperson Liz Harrington also tweeted out a press release sharing the Truth Social post.
“How many times did Chris Christie use the word SMALL? Does he have a psychological problem with SIZE? Actually, his speech was SMALL, and not very good. It rambled all over the place, and nobody had a clue of what he was talking about...” pic.twitter.com/wmOJ4JWfO7
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) June 7, 2023
Christie's 7.4 percent support with his sixth place finish in New Hampshire meant he received no delegates from the state, and he exited the race soon after. Trump won New Hampshire in the presidential primary with 35.3 percent.
Many headlines from the end of his term have called to mind Christie's historically low approval ratings. An Insider headline from January 16, 2018 read "It's Chris Christie's last day in office — here's how he became the least popular governor in New Jersey history. The piece went on to cite a Rutger's poll showing Christie with a 14 percent approval rating.
Joe Concha at The Messenger also spoke to Christie's low approval ratings in a new piece of his.
My latest for The Messenger. Chris Christie launches his kamikaze campaign tonight. In a related story, he left office here in Jersey at 15 percent approval: https://t.co/ZpE62ufl7s
— Joe Concha (@JoeConchaTV) June 6, 2023
Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Make America Great Again Inc. also weighed in on the race in a press release. "Ron DeSantis’ campaign is spiraling, and President Trump’s dominance over the Republican primary field has opened a mad rush to seize the mantle for runner-up. Ron DeSantis is not ready for this moment, and Chris Christie will waste no time eating DeSantis' lunch," she said.
Leavitt herself also tweeted out a not so flattering take on Christie's launch.
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) June 6, 2023
Over at our sister site of RedState, Bonchie had a thoughtful take on why Christie doesn't exactly offer a compelling campaign, writing with original emphasis:
Who is asking for Chris Christie? Who is out there demanding that he jump into the race because no one else already in the race can do what he can do? Who is your average Christie voter? Those questions are almost rhetorical because we know there is no groundswell. Your average Christie voter makes up one percent of the GOP and watches ABC News on Sunday mornings. Does that sound like a winning coalition?
He made that exact case several weeks back when he appeared on the Ruthless podcast. In that episode, Christie actually spent most of his time attacking Ron DeSantis for going after Disney (undermining his point about focusing on Trump), insisting that the Florida man should have used the “bully pulpit” instead of the levers of power. I won’t get into Christie’s record of governance (nor his scandals), but needless to say, the “just whine about things” approach isn’t really what Republican voters are into these days.
...
...Since getting into the race, DeSantis has been hitting Trump hard, and he clearly has the will to make the primary as competitive as possible. So I’ll ask again, who is pining for Chris Christie? What’s his justification given the current state of the race?
The answer to that latter question is that he doesn’t have one. All Christie is going to do is cement his irrelevance, and in the end, he won’t add anything of value to the field. With Trump and DeSantis as the top two candidates, primary voters already have a delineation in personality styling and some policy choices that give them a real choice while not going full Asa Hutchinson. Further dilution of the field by Christie is simply being done to soothe his outsized ego.
While Christie claims to be going up against Trump, he has not only gone after Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), but he's brought up Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was also a contender in 2016. The New York Times on Tuesday called to mind how Christie went after the senator, back in March when exploring a run.
When asked in New Hampshire what his favorite memory from the state was in 2016, Christie offered it was the debate where he went after Rubio. "You better have somebody on that stage who can do to him what I did to Marco," Christie offered.
Rubio on Tuesday night tweeted out a lengthy response addressing any such claims that Christie ended his run, saying they were "lazy or dumb." He did, however, speak to his debate performance, saying it "sucked because instead of hitting back when attacked like I wanted to, I listened to advice about 'pivoting' & not 'punching down' on a CC who was at 7% & about to drop out," though he reiterated "it didn’t end my campaign."
Any political reporter/commentator claiming Christie “ended” my campaign in 2016 is lazy or dumb
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) June 6, 2023
NH debate sucked because instead of hitting back when attacked like I wanted to, I listened to advice about “pivoting” & not “punching down” on a CC who was at 7% & about to drop…
Polling currently shows Christie with single digit support, at about 1 percent. It's no wonder Nathaniel Rakich wrote for FiveThirtyEight on Tuesday night that "Chris Christie Should Have Run For President In 2012."
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