With the recent addition of commentator and 2021 California Governor candidate Larry Elder joining the list of Republican hopefuls for President of the United States, many are beginning to wonder when some of the actual heavy-hitters will declare their candidacy.
Candidates such as Vivek Ramaswamy and Asa Hutchinson may offer voters a different perspective when it comes to leading the country, but they lack the experience or name recognition that running for the Office of the President requires. More realistic challengers to Trump would be candidates such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis or former Vice President Mike Pence who both have experience working with, and against, the former president.
Interestingly, someone who is hoping to rise to that same level is former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Christie is not unfamiliar with running for President of the United States, as he was a candidate back in 2016, before ultimately conceding and endorsing the eventual winner, Donald Trump. Since then, Christie has had a rocky relationship with Trump, going from one of the top officials at the start of the Trump presidency to becoming an outspoken critic and rival following the chaotic January 6th disaster. Christie has continued to call for the Republican Party to move on from Trump, saying that if Trump were to become the next Republican nominee, he would lose once again to Joe Biden.
Over the past few months, Christie has been hinting about his intentions to win the Republican nomination himself, declaring himself “a viable alternative” and proclaiming that he will “become the nominee.”
With speculation raised about his possible candidacy for the Republican nomination, the question of whether Christie could actually win the nomination against his would-be rivals is pretty clear: not a chance.
Despite his confidence and recent tours to key primary states, Christie has absolutely no chance of securing the Republican nomination in 2024 for three main reasons: his polling, his unoriginal message, and his history of failures.
To start, Christie is not really in a good position to run a campaign. According to the most recent polls, he is not even polling 1%, and with candidates such as Trump leading by numbers above 50%, there simply is no time, actions, or resources available to get Christie up to that level. Another aspect that is working against Christie is his own messaging.
While claiming to be anti-Trump and claiming to be a viable alternative candidate sounds nice on paper, he fails to realize that any and every candidate who is running for the Republican nomination will have that exact same message. Not only does Christie’s unoriginal branding make him blend in with the rest of his opponents, but it was also this type of old-School Republicanism and “Anyone-but-Trump” rhetoric that got Trump elected the last time in 2016.
Speaking of 2016, Christie has also already demonstrated his ability to make very little impact in the primaries, with his performance coming nowhere close to the more serious 2016 challengers such as Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio. Despite his history of performing poorly during a critical election season, everything Christie has been doing lately indicates that he will declare his candidacy for the Republican nomination, likely in the next few weeks, regardless of the impossible odds he faces.
He may do better than any other potential nominees at the debates, as debating is one of his strongest political attributes, and he might even hold on to become the last candidate still in the race to face off against Trump once the Primaries begin. But after he loses the first few states, he will inevitably suspend his campaign, and begrudgingly throw his weight (pun intended) behind Trump during the national election.
