Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is considering a run for president in 2024, report says
Chris Christie #ChrisChristie
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is considering a run for president in the 2024 Republican primary, Axios reported on Wednesday.
Christie sat out the 2012 presidential primary and unsuccessfully ran in the crowded 2016 GOP primary field, losing to former President Donald Trump, who edged out Christie as the tri-state area candidate with a tough-as-nails reputation.
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Sources close to Christie told Axios that the former governor and federal prosecutor believes he could carve out a unique lane as the sole candidate who has both held statewide executive office and previously run for president, an edge he thinks he could hold over rising star Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida.
DeSantis, who ran for governor in 2018 as an explicitly pro-Trump candidate, has attracted a flurry of positive news coverage for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and is generating buzz among GOP donors, who reportedly see him as a “nicer” version of Trump.
Trump told Fox News on Monday that he is “very seriously” considering another presidential bid in 2024. But, if he decides against that, other possible frontrunners besides DeSantis include former Vice President Mike Pence, Sens. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Rick Scott, and Tom Cotton, Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former US Ambassador to the UN and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Still, the makeup of the GOP base has seen a marked change since Christie was in office. There are now fewer white, college-educated, suburban voters who elected Christie to the governorship in New Jersey. In their place are more non-college educated voters and, in 2020, more Latino voters. So Christie could struggle to gain traction in a primary field dominated by Trump loyalists.
During Trump’s presidency, Christie served as an on-air contributor at ABC News, and was most critical of Trumpworld towards the end of the Trump administration.
Christie tested positive for COVID-19 after assisting the Trump campaign with debate prep in fall 2020. His bout with the disease landed him in the hospital and led him to openly plead with Americans to take the pandemic seriously and wear masks, at odds with the Trump White House’s consistent downplaying of the pandemic.
The former governor also spoke out against the Trump campaign’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the courts, calling a last-ditch lawsuit in the Supreme Court seeking to overturn four states’ election results “an absurdity” and Trump’s legal team “a national embarrassment.”