Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie filed paperwork to run for president, injecting a dose of anti-Trump criticism into a Republican primary field that has largely been reluctant to cross its leading candidate.
Christie, 60, was set to personally announce his campaign Tuesday evening during a town hall event in Manchester, New Hampshire, the state where his last presidential bid came undone.
Christie placed sixth in that state’s 2016 primary and dropped out of the race shortly thereafter. In a surprising move, Christie endorsed then-candidate Donald Trump just days later. He went on to help prep Trump for his debate against now-President Joe Biden in the 2020 contest.
But his support for Trump dried up soon after, as the former president, following his loss to Biden, fed his supporters a firehose of conspiracy theories and false claims of widespread voter fraud while pushing to overturn his defeat.
Like many Republicans, Christie criticized Trump after a violent mob of the then-president’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, derailing the peaceful transfer of power to Biden. But while much of the GOP establishment softened its stance on Trump in the ensuing months, Christie kept up his criticism.
“I think he’s a coward and I think he’s a puppet of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Christie said last month in response to Trump’s comments about the Ukraine war during a CNN town hall.
Christie, whose aggressive takedown of Sen. Marco Rubio in a 2016 Republican debate was a highlight of his campaign, has stressed the need for Trump’s current challengers to forcefully confront him on the debate stage.
“You better have somebody on that stage who will do to him what I did to Marco, because that’s the only thing that’s going to defeat Donald Trump,” Christie said in March.
“It’s not going to end nicely no matter what,” the former governor said of Trump. “His end will not be a calm and quiet conclusion.”
Christie has suggested in recent months that he wouldn’t run unless he sees a feasible path to victory. To many political watchers, that path remains unclear.
Polls of the prospective primary race show Christie garnering little support from Republican voters. A recent Monmouth University survey found Christie was the only declared or potential GOP candidate to receive a net negative favorability rating, 21% to 47%, from Republican voters.
Christie’s announcement comes less than two weeks after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis officially joined the Republican primary race, becoming the top non-Trump contender. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott entered the primary that same week. Former Vice President Mike Pence is expected to join the fray on Wednesday.
Allies of the former New Jersey governor recently launched a super PAC, Tell It Like It Is, to support his run for president.
Christie was elected governor of the historically blue state in 2009 and served for two terms, the maximum allowed under term limit rules.
He gained national attention in 2012 for his response to Superstorm Sandy, which battered his state and caused billions of dollars in damage. Christie’s vocal praise for then-President Barack Obama’s support amid the crisis angered some of his fellow Republicans, but the governor’s polling numbers surged in the wake of the storm.
Those high approval ratings would crater by the end of Christie’s second term, which was marred by his connection to the 2013 “Bridgegate” scandal.
In September of that year, commuter lanes were shut down on the George Washington Bridge connecting New Jersey and New York for several days in retaliation against a mayor who refused to back Christie’s reelection bid. The lane closures caused massive traffic jams.
The Supreme Court in 2020 reversed fraud convictions against two of Christie’s aides who had played key roles in the scandal.
Christie was succeeded by Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy, who won a second term in 2021. Christie joined ABC News in 2018 as a political contributor. In 2020, he was hospitalized with a severe case of Covid-19 that he said put him in an ICU for a week.
