(Headline USA) Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to launch yet another Republican presidential campaign next week in New Hampshire.
Christie—who also ran in 2016 and humored the idea of running against then-incumbent President Donald Trump in 2020—was planning to make the announcement at a town hall Tuesday evening at Saint Anselm College’s New Hampshire Institute of Politics, according to a person familiar with his thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to confirm Christie’s plans.
The timing, which was first reported by Axios, comes after several longtime Christie advisers started a super political action committee to support his expected candidacy.
The Associated Press had previously reported that Christie was expected to enter the race “imminently.”
Christie has cast himself as the only potential candidate willing to aggressively take on Trump, the current front-runner for the nomination.
But what he has pitched as pragmatism often comes off as sycophantic and self-serving opportunism to conservative, who point to his notorious sucking up to then-President Barack Obama, providing positive optics as the latter toured Hurricane Sandy damage just days before he coasted to re-election.
After initially running against Trump in 2016, Christie also sucked up to the future president by becoming an early endorser and was later appointed to oversee his transition team.
However, Christie, a former federal prosecutor, soured on Trump when his own ambition got in the way after Trump declined to appoint him as attorney general.
With little use for him as an ally, the portly politician instead tried to posture himself as a prominent intra-party Trump critic, thereby currying the favor and disproportionate attention of mainstream media outlets, many of which have designated him as one of their go-to Republicans for mirroring their own viewpoints.
Christie, who is currently polling at the bottom of the pack, dropped out of the 2016 presidential race a day after finishing sixth in New Hampshire’s primary.
But on Wednesday, he garnered the enthusiastic support of at least one public figure on Twitter: Fox News token Democrat Geraldo Rivera.
Chris Christie is a bad ass. Remember he was Godzilla in Jersey before he got trashed in the Big Bridge Debacle. He’s going to have an impact on the early race and beyond.
— Geraldo Rivera (@GeraldoRivera) May 31, 2023
In addition to Trump, Christie would be joining a GOP field that includes Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is expected to announce his candidacy on June 7, according to two GOP operatives. And former Vice President Mike Pence is also expected to launch a campaign soon.
Allies argued that Christie, who has been working as an ABC News analyst, has a unique ability to communicate.
They said his candidacy could help prevent a repeat of 2016, when Trump’s rivals largely refrained from directly attacking the New York businessman, wrongly assuming he would implode on his own.
Christie has also said repeatedly that he will not run if he does not see a path to victory. “I’m not a paid assassin,” he recently told Politico.
While Christie is expected to spend much of his time in early-voting New Hampshire, as he did in 2016, advisers believe the path to the nomination runs through Trump and they envision an unconventional, national campaign for Christie with a focus on garnering media attention and directly engaging with Trump.
Adapted from reporting by the Associated Press
