Christie looking to pop Trump’s air of inevitability in New Hampshire

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is spoiling for a fight with former President Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential race, but so far, he is shadowboxing.

Mr. Christie hoped to confront Mr. Trump in the first debate, framing the showdown as a must-watch prize fight. The opportunity escaped him when Mr. Trump skipped the debate.

He has since waged war against Mr. Trump on the television talk show circuit and the campaign trail, going as far as to say he plans to chase him around the country if he won’t debate.

It is taking the sting out of the Christie campaign.

“The person he is taking swings at hasn’t been in the room,” Sonoma State University political science professor David McCuan said.” If Trump is in the room and on the stage, then Christie can be Christie, entertaining and acerbic and the best of New Jersey — but he is not in the room.”

Mr. Christie says Mr. Trump has adopted President Biden’s “basement strategy” and his allies say he is undeterred in his quest to convince the party it is time to dump Trump.

“Chris isn’t frustrated,” said Bill Palatucci, chair of the pro-Christie Tell It Like It Is super PAC. “He’s enjoying the chase and the applause that he’s receiving for standing up for the Constitution and the rule of law.”

Mr. Christie’s path to the nomination is narrow, so much so that his candidacy has been cast by political observers and Republican insiders as more of a kamikaze mission to kneecap the Trump candidacy.

The Trump campaign said Mr. Christie is going nowhere in the race.

“Chris Christie is a stone-cold loser who spends every day on the cable news casting couch auditioning for a contributor contract whenever his joke of a campaign ends up in flames,” Trump Spokesman Steve Cheung said.

Mr. Christie endorsed Mr. Trump in the 2016 primary after he dropped out of the race, giving the real estate magnate a boost at a key moment in the race. He also helped Mr. Trump prep for debates in 2016.

Mr. Christie is going all-in on winning or putting a stronger-than-expected showing on in the first-in-the-nation primary in New Hampshire where voters tend to be more moderate than the more conservative Republicans in Iowa. They also are known for their independent streak.

“New Hampshire is going to decide whether we have another four years of Joe Biden or we are not,” he said at a recent New Hampshire event with former Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown. “I think if Donald Trump is our nominee, he will lose.”

The New York Times reported this week that 90% of the events he has held since February have been in New Hampshire. Mr. Christie has climbed into third place in New Hampshire, according to the Real Clear Politics average of recent polls.

Mr. Christie, 61, has made it clear he plans to stick in the race through the New Hampshire primary. If he performs poorly, he will drop out.

He is taking inspiration from Sen. John McCain’s stunning 2008 victory in New Hampshire, which vaulted the previously left-for-dead candidate to the nomination.

“If New Hampshire gives me the voters to beat Donald Trump on primary night in New Hampshire, this whole race and all the polls and everything will change overnight because I think much of the former president’s support is based on the air of inevitability,” he said. “The minute they know it is not a foregone conclusion, the whole race changes.”

For now, Mr. Christie is doing what he can to bait Mr. Trump into that elusive faceoff and hopes he gets a chance at a second presidential debate later this month at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, California.

His frustration at being ignored by Mr. Trump is showing.

“He has been pretty much hiding in the basement,” Mr. Christie said at another campaign stop in New Hampshire. “So what we are basically going to have to do is go to public events of his and try to confront him. If he won’t show up at debate that is what we are going to have to do.” 

He said, “I don’t know how else to do it.”