Much fanfare has been made in Republican circles regarding New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s 30 point re-election win this past Tuesday. Many GOP insiders see him as the path to victory in 2016 given his apparent ability to pull in more of the female, Hispanic, and black vote than most of his Republican counterparts. However, even for Christie with the wind presently at his back, it would be an uphill climb against Hillary Clinton.
Report from National Journal:
If the Republican presidential primary were held today roughly one in three voters would cast their lot with Gov. Chris Christie, according to a new poll.
But even if he emerged from the primary victorious, Christie would lose his bid for president to Democratic former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the poll from NBC News found.
The poll pitted Christie only against an unnamed challenger in the primary.
“A third of the vote is not a bad showing in a party primary with [potentially] 10 candidates, but the first primary is more than two years away,” G. Evans Witt, CEO of polling firm Princeton Survey Research told NBC News.
According to the poll, Christie wins big in the Northeast, 57 percent to 22 percent, however voters in other portions of the country favor other potential Republican candidates over the New Jersey governor.
If Christie were to face Clinton in a general election held today, the Democrat would beat the New Jersey governor by 10 points, 44 percent to 34 percent. The remaining 22 percent of respondents either said they are unsure, would not vote or would vote for another candidate.
Given the numbers in that poll, Christie’s bid for 2016 is anything but a walk in the park. First, he’d have to win the Republican primary which will likely be dominated by a base trending more towards Rand Paul and Ted Cruz than Christie’s brand of Republicanism.
Next, should he win the nomination, he’d have to fight the Clinton machine while trying to convince conservative Republicans to come back and vote for him in the general. A tough task which John McCain and Mitt Romney were unable to accomplish.
