Chris Christie is adding another bold-faced name to the increasingly crowded 2024 Republican field. The big questions he’ll have to answer in the coming months are whether his candidacy has a cogent rationale or a remotely plausible path to victory, and whether his presence will once again help, rather than hurt, Donald Trump.
Governor Chris Sununu took into account similar considerations, and thought better of running. To say that Christie faces an uphill climb for the Republican nomination is to put things a lot more politely than he would were he discussing another candidate with a similar background. His brash New Jersey style is a turnoff to many voters, especially those who aren’t already voting for Trump. He has a past that includes advocating gun bans and embracing Barack Obama both literally (after Hurricane Sandy just ahead of the 2012 presidential election) and on policy (by backing Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion in New Jersey). In 2016, Christie dropped out after placing a distant sixth in New Hampshire, where he spent most of his time campaigning. And this year’s New Hampshire primary will be an additional eight years removed from the fond memories conservatives have of Christie confronting teachers’ unions in his early days as New Jersey governor in 2010-2011. Or of his service as a pro-life governor who fought for school choice and coasted to reelection in a solidly blue state.
The best one can say about the passage of time since he left office is that it also dims memories of the Bridgegate scandal, in which his senior staff snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge approach lanes as a ham-handed form of political retaliation against a mayor who didn’t endorse Christie’s reelection.
There’s no doubt that Christie has charisma, rhetorical talent, and an ability to home in on an opponent’s weakness — as Senator Marco Rubio can attest to. But the interest in his 2024 candidacy will center on his stated intention to take on Trump — the latest turn in a tumultuous relationship.
By helping to decapitate Rubio in the 2016 New Hampshire primary debate, Christie deeply wounded one of the candidates who still had an outside chance against Trump, even as Christie himself passed on opportunities to confront Trump on the debate stage. He then became one of the first high-profile Republicans to endorse Trump and campaigned for him. After spending months in 2016 leading Trump’s transition effort, Christie was stiffed when Trump ignored the resulting transition plan once he actually got elected and passed over Christie for any significant role in the new administration (which Christie claimed was payback for his having prosecuted Jared Kushner’s father years earlier). Nonetheless, Christie defended Trump throughout his presidency, and helped Trump prepare for his debates with Joe Biden. He didn’t reach his last straw until Trump’s denial of the 2020 election results and the disgrace of January 6. Since 2021, Christie has been a consistent critic of Trump.
A few months ago, the calculus for Christie was that he would be the only candidate willing to take on Trump. Now that Florida governor Ron DeSantis has entered the race and showed a willingness to hit back hard against Trump, that rationale has eroded somewhat. That said, it’s undeniable that of the declared candidates, Christie will go after Trump more aggressively and in blunter terms. With Christie, there won’t be any dancing around the “culture of losing” in the GOP or carefully nuanced answers to questions about what happened in the 2020 election. Christie has said, and will continue to say, that Trump lost in 2020 and, if he’s nominated in 2024, he will lose again.
We applaud Christie’s willingness to speak the truth about what really happened in the 2020 election as well as the albatross that Trump would represent to Republicans as nominee in 2024. But if he is truly motivated to save the party from Trump, Christie should think very carefully about whether his presence in the race would make a Trump nomination more likely, rather than less. Given his unpopularity among many Republicans, it’s possible that his attacks will be easily deflected by Trump and discounted by most in the party. Furthermore, if he decides to go after Trump’s primary opponents as he did the last time around, and refuses to drop out if his candidacy gains no traction, he could once again help clear the path for Trump to be the nominee.
Christie has as much right to make his case before voters as anybody else running. But he should keep in mind that by running a kamikaze campaign, Christie may take out somebody other than his stated target.