Chris Christie lays out three requirements to launch his 2024 presidential bid
Rachel Schilke
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Former Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) is one of a few GOP political figures actively mulling a 2024 presidential run, but he is taking his time to consider whether he, his family, and his career are ready to pursue the top national office.
Christie said he has three requirements before he launches a presidential campaign, for which a decision is expected to come in mid-May. If he does, he may become the first GOP contender to engage with former President Donald Trump.
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Trump is lining up to be the front-runner for the 2024 race, which Christie said is due to candidates being afraid to engage and battle with him — a necessary and often ugly component of elections.
Christie said his first prerequisite is to have something to say, according to Politico. Candidates such as former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC) and Vivek Ramaswamy laid the groundwork for some of their policies moving forward, such as abortion access, while Trump is preoccupied with his many legal problems and a rampage against the results of the 2020 election.
The former New Jersey governor said he is ready to face Trump in a national arena. Christie said some Republicans are hoping he enters the race simply to blast Trump. While he said he’s not interested in that, he knows he would be able to face Trump in ways other candidates cannot.
Trump’s vulnerability “needs to be called out, and it needs to be called out by somebody who knows him,” Christie said. “Nobody knows Donald Trump better than I do.”
He said, given his many town halls, two terms as governor, and work as an ABC commentator, he is practiced at getting his points across.
His second requirement focused mainly on how the election would affect his family. The last time he ran for president, in 2016, some of his children were in middle or high school. Now, with his children being grown, Christie said his wife, Mary Pat Christie, can travel with him instead of having to stay home with the children.
Christie said his wife is encouraging him to run and is looking forward to a campaign. Christie and his wife visited Washington, D.C., this week for meetings and traveled to Indiana on Wednesday before heading to New Hampshire, a 2024 battleground state for GOP contenders.
“I think running for president of the United States is an intensely personal decision,” he told the Washington Examiner. “And that’s one that anybody who’s considering it should have the right to make on their own regardless of anybody else’s thoughts on it.”
However, the third requirement Christie needs before launching a campaign is to know whether he can see a win or not. In Washington, he gathered 40 members from his political alumni network to talk about a presidential campaign launch. He’s called donors and asked old allies and strategists if they will support him.
“I had someone ask me yesterday on one of these phone calls, ‘Well, explain to me the exact path that gets you there.’ And I’m like, ‘I can’t,’” Christie said. “And anybody who says they can is completely full of it, you know? Explain the Donald Trump path in 2016. Who had that one predicted? Not even Trump.”
Christie could also face Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) if he decides to enter the 2024 election. The former governor has not been afraid to criticize DeSantis for his comments on China, Ukraine, and Trump’s indictment.
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He said DeSantis’s refusal to have Florida assist with the former president’s extradition to New York, after originally offering sly quips knocking Trump’s connection to Stormy Daniels, shows a lack of authenticity.
“Stylistically, people want to know that you’re authentic, and they want to know that what you say is what you believe,” Christie said at the time. “So, I think that’s the bigger problem for DeSantis is, you know, everybody looks at that and goes, ‘Yeah, right.'”