Chris Christie, claims that his outspoken criticism of Trump has helped him gain ground in the most recent GOP nomination polls.
However, respondents to one poll stated that the former two-term New Jersey governor is the GOP candidate they are least likely to support, indicating that Christie’s favorable ratings are well below those of likely Republican primary voters.
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Christie, who launched his second White House bid two weeks ago, stated on Thursday in New Hampshire that his strategy for increasing his favorable ratings is to “come up here, and you campaign.”
Christie said, “Remember this, eight years ago when I came up here, my unfavorable were upside down 25 points in the first poll. And on primary night, my favorable were up plus 30, so a 55-point swing. You know, look, people get to know me, I usually do pretty well.”
When Christie ran for the Republican nomination in 2016, he put all his money in New Hampshire. However, his campaign failed following a disappointing sixth-place finish in New Hampshire, far behind Trump, who defeated the competition in the primary to win the GOP nomination and, ultimately, the White House.
Chris Christie was the first Republican presidential candidate in 2016 to endorse Trump, and he served as Trump’s top outside adviser for years, even chairing Trump’s high-profile opioids commission.
However, Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to reclaim his defeat in the 2020 election to Joe Biden, now president, led to a disagreement between the two. Christie has emerged as one of the GOP’s most outspoken Trump detractors over the past two years.
The former governor, who was making his first trip back to New Hampshire after launching his 2024 campaign in the state earlier this month, pointed to his vocal critiques of Trump and argued that “I’m saying what’s on a lot of people’s minds, that none of the other candidates are saying. And it needs to be said.”
Christie promised, “I am going to be the alternative to Donald Trump.” “I’m going to be the person that people look at and say he’s the only one drawing a distinction between himself and Donald Trump. I am going to be the alternative to Donald Trump, and when I am, I’m going to beat him.”
“Will lead us to defeat again, and that’s the case you have to make to voters across the spectrum,” Christie said, reiterating his claim that Trump “will lead us to defeat again.” Christie is focusing his power in New Hampshire.
“As a side note, I don’t buy this stuff about Trump voters. They are not his to own. They decided in favor of him, and they’ve said they’re driving towards deciding in favor of him this time,” he underlined. “There will be a lot of water to flow over that dam between now and then, and we will argue our case to every New Hampshire voter.”
Chris Christie is not the only Republican presidential candidate who disapproves of the former president. He is commanding over his rivals in GOP polls as he makes his third consecutive presidential run.
Asa Hutchinson, a former congressman, and two-term Arkansas governor who launched a campaign earlier this year, has long been a vocal critic of Republican President Donald Trump.
Will Hurd, a former GOP Rep from Texas who was once a CIA spy, is one more. On Thursday, he announced his candidacy, bringing the total number of candidates to over a dozen.
“I wish Will and Asa luck,” Chris Christie said at Manchester’s renowned Red Arrow Diner. Some luck, but not a lot.”
“The attention I’m getting because of the way I’m saying things is different from Asa, who’s in the race for three months and hasn’t got that kind of attention from the voters or from the media and frankly not quite the kind of attention that I think Will will probably get as well,” he argued. “The attention I’m getting because of the way I’m saying things is different.”
“We’ll see,” Hutchinson said when he went to the Red Arrow Diner about an hour after Chris Christie left. In this race, every voice is important.”
Asa Hutchinson, a Republican presidential candidate, stated that the GOP 2024 field would likely split the anti-Trump vote. However, Hutchinson acknowledged that he, Christie, and Hurd would “probably” split the anti-Trump vote.
“I didn’t expect to have 12 candidates in the race,” he stated when he announced his candidacy.
“If our message doesn’t resonate and we’re stepping on each other’s toes, then we need to say who can be the leader, and we need to make sure that we reduce those numbers as we get closer to 2024,” says “We’ve got to go through this period of self-evaluation.”
However, he said, “I don’t think people need to be dropping out before we actually have votes cast,” pointing to the beginning of the nominations calendar in the early part of next year.
Chris Christie argued that his relationship with Trump distinguishes him from other anti-Trump candidates.
“Because I’ve known Donald Trump for 22 years, I also think my message is different. His transition was over by me. In preparation for his debate, I played Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. He emphasized, “I’m not a never Trumper.”
And he argued that “Trump voters who’ve voted for him in the past can look at me and know that I was somebody who was willing to give him a chance and worked as hard as I could to make him as good a president as he could be. But he failed. He failed our party and failed our country. And we don’t need that kind of failure as our candidate again in 2024.”
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Chris Christie likewise stayed sure that he’ll have sufficient benefactor backing to run a successful mission.
He predicted, “We feel very good about the people we have supporting us, and you’ll see when our report comes out in mid-July that we will have raised a good amount of money after only being a candidate for three weeks.”
