Former NJ Governor Chris Christie Announces 2024 White House Bid : NPR

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addresses a rally during a town hall-style meeting at New England College in Henniker, NH on April 20.

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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie addresses a rally during a town hall-style meeting at New England College in Henniker, NH on April 20.

Charles Krupa/AP

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is set to enter the 2024 presidential race, according to a source close to Christie.

Christie will announce at a Town Hall event at St. Anselm College in Manchester, NH on Tuesday. New Hampshire prides itself on its “first in the country” status for presidential primaries and remains the top primary election on the Republican calendar. Iowa is the first voting contest for Republicans when it holds its caucuses in early 2024.

Christie spent a lot of time in New Hampshire before her event.

Christie first ran for president in 2016, arguing he was a candidate who “would tell it like it is”. But that message was drowned out by eventual Republican candidate Donald Trump. Christie dropped out of the 2016 race after a disappointing sixth-place finish in New Hampshire.

This time around, Christie is expected to position himself as a traditional conservative alternative to former President Trump. Christie and Trump were once longtime friends, and Christie supported him in the 2016 primary after ending his own campaign. But Christie broke with the former president in the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, blaming his lies about a “stolen election” for the violence that ensued. In 2021, he wrote a book titled “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden,” and his critics of Trump have become more energetic since the former president announced a second round.

During his tenure as governor, Christie garnered national attention and flirted with a presidential run in 2012. He found himself on the national stage again when Super Hurricane Sandy hit New Jersey, days before the election. of 2012. His decision to host then-President Obama while surveying the storm damage, as Obama was vying for a second term, angered many Republicans. But putting aside partisan politics to weather the storm earned him his highest approval in the state, nearly 80% of New Jersey voters.

The following year, Christie was embroiled in a controversy dubbed “Bridgegate”, in which several of his aides engineered lane closures on the George Washington Bridge as political retaliation against a local mayor. Several people involved in the scandal faced criminal charges. Although Christie himself was never charged, the saga decimated his reputation and he left office as the state’s least popular governor.

NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro contributed reporting.

President-elect Donald Trump and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie shake hands after their November 20, 2016 meeting in Bedminster Township, NJ

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President-elect Donald Trump and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie shake hands after their November 20, 2016 meeting in Bedminster Township, NJ

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