The field of Republicans running for president is shrinking these days. Former Vice President Mike Pence recently left the race, as did South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott. One candidate hoping to capitalize on the thinning field is New Jersey Governor Chris Christie — in large part by pinning his hopes on New Hampshire voters turned off by Donald Trump.
Christie’s strategy mirrors the approach he took eight years ago, in his first run for the White House. That often means that attending a Christie campaign stop these days feels a bit like time travel.
During both campaigns, the former New Jersey governor has tended to praise voters here as possessing a special power and responsibility.
“New Hampshire is the state where everyone who wants to participate can participate,” Christie told the crowd last week as he campaigned at the VFW hall in Merrimack. “It’s an open system; it's transparent. And all of you get to decide.”
Throughout both of his campaigns in New Hampshire, he’s presented himself as a straight-talking conservative with a track record of working across the political aisle.
And then and now, Christie has derided Trump as a unique threat to the country.
Before a crowd in Derry eight years ago, Christie derided then-candidate Trump as a would-be “Entertainer in Chief.” Last week in Merrimack, he called Trump “a criminal.”
In between those condemnations, of course, Christie endorsed Trump’s candidacy in 2016 and even advised Trump when he was in the White House, before condemning him for his role in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Today, Christie remains very much in the middle of the pack of Republican candidates trying to block Trump in 2024. Bill Boyd, a Republican state representative who is undecided in this race, says Christie remains a candidate he’s seriously considering — because of his record as a governor and his frankness — but he doesn't understand why more GOP in New Hampshire voters aren't considering Christie.
“Candidly, I don’t know how to answer that question,” Boyd said, as he awaited Christie at the Merrimack VFW. “I mean, you can make the same argument for Ambassador (Nikki) Haley, Gov. (Ron) DeSantis. And regardless of what polls may say right now, it’s Election Day that matters the most.”
But Christie does face a challenge in New Hampshire that other Republicans chasing Trump don’t: persistent unpopularity with many of his party’s core voters.
In one September poll, fully 60% of likely New Hampshire GOP primary voters named Christie the Republican candidate they would “never” vote for.
That conundrum is visible at Christie campaign events, where his staunchest backers are often voters who defy any definition of Republican regular.
“Let me be clear: the minute Gov. Christie dropped out of the 2016 race, I started working for Hillary (Clinton)," said Catherine Johnson of Hanover.
Johnson voted for Christie in that year’s Republican primary, attracted to his leadership and ability to work with Democrats as governor. She cried when he dropped out after a sixth place finish in New Hampshire and then endorsed Trump, which she said took some time to get over.
But nearly eight years later, she’s back on board. Now a registered Democrat, Johnson can’t even cast a primary ballot for her favored candidate this year, but she remains convinced Christie has a path to victory.
“I think 40 percent of voters in New Hampshire are independent. He’s just got to reach these voters,” Johnson said.
Christie and his allies are trying to do just that. Earlier this fall, political action committeesbacking Christe worked to encourage Democrats to change their party affiliation to vote for him in the Republican primary. At Christie’s event in Merrimack last week, several independent voters said they see Christie as a viable choice — maybe their only one.
Scott Simeone, who lives in Amherst and works for military contractor Raytheon, ticked through the reasons why he couldn’t support other candidates in the GOP field, including Trump.
“He’s a criminal,” Simeone said of the former president. “I voted for him the last time around, I thought he was what the country needed. What he did on January 6th was unforgivable.”
Simeone also had already eliminated Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy as too extreme, inexperienced or ineffective, leaving him with nowhere left to go, he said, other than Christie.
Picking a candidate by process of elimination may not be terribly inspiring, but it is how plenty of voters choose. As he campaigns in New Hampshire — the only state he’s spent any real time — Christie likes to argue that New Hampshire voters have the best chance to derail Trump.
“His time on the stage is over, and I know who is going to end it: the 603. The 603 is going to end it,” Christie declared in Merrimack.
Christie’s bet is that success in New Hampshire will give his candidacy a second act.
