Chris Christie is in the Republican presidential primary race to stop Donald Trump from getting the nomination. He is going nowhere fast, according to polls, but he persists. He shows up at the various events that cater to primary voters. Today that event was the Faith and Freedom Coalition Conference in Washington, D.C. The Road to the Majority 2023 event targeted evangelical voters.
The founder and chairman of the organization is Ralph Reed. Most of the Republican candidates running for president are speaking at the conference. I was interested in hearing Christie’s speech, especially since it was tweeted out on Twitter that he was booed. What was the commotion about?
Christie began with a prayer after he said that the most important issue to discuss is that of character. Then he launched into his political speech. When he got to the part about he’s running because Trump let us down, there were some boos. Not anything as dramatic as the whole room erupting but enough that C-SPAN picked it up. Christie did what he does – he pushed back and said, “Boo all you want.” Then he went on to explain what he meant.
.@GovChristie on former President Trump: “I’m running because he’s let us down.”
When he’s booed by attendees of Faith & Freedom Coalition Conference, he says “you can boo all you want.” pic.twitter.com/aQz4qbFxSJ
— CSPAN (@cspan) June 23, 2023
He’s not wrong. I listened to the whole thing and I think he did a pretty good job.
Christie is polling at 2% to 3% in most polls. He’s not at the very bottom but he’s close. He does better in New Hampshire and he’s counting on New Hampshire to help him. He’s was at 9% and gaining ground on DeSantis, who was at 13% in a recent poll.
It’s early and polls don’t mean much right now. But they do allow us to get a sense of what voters are thinking at this stage. The evangelical voters at the Faith and Freedom event included Trump voters but there was also some support for Christie and I imagine other candidates, too. I think that Christie’s explanation about the importance to get back to the issue of character was interesting. However, that is an old-school Republican stance. Remember when Bob Dole ran against Bill Clinton and he could not understand why voters supported Biden over him? He asked, “Where is the outrage?” It was a reference to Clinton’s behavior and the scandals that followed him into his re-election campaign. That was in 1996.
A problem for Christie and his preaching about the need for the return of character in politicians (he’s right) is that Christie always points out that he was the first to endorse Trump in 2016 after he left the primary race. Christie has a friendship with Trump that spans two decades. He knew of Trump’s character and yet he supported him. He also supported him in 2020. So to now turn and say that character matters, implying Trump without naming him, it looks hypocritical. He makes a point of saying Trump let us down and he’s a weak leader.
Christie says that Trump name calls him because he is challenging him for the nomination, though he offered him the position of chief of staff and he worked with Trump in debate prep in both 2016 and 2020. He should have expected that behavior, though. Trump isn’t loyal to anyone and has mocked and name-called his opponents all along. Trump is 77 years old. He isn’t going to change.
Christie is in the same lane as Asa Hutchinson and Will Hurd in the race. They are in the anti-Trump lane. Hutchinson is stuck between 0% and 1% in the polls. Hurd just got into the race so we haven’t seen any polling that includes him yet. He will sink like a rock.
So, good for Christie showing up and doing his thing now. I hope he remembers the lessons of 2015 – 16, though and gets back out of the race when the New Hampshire primary is over. Unless something happens and he suddenly takes off in the polls, he’ll just be wasting time and energy that could be spent picking the strongest candidate against Joe Biden in the general election. A large field of candidates helps Trump. He knows that.
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