Chris Christie Plans to Enter 2024 Republican Presidential Race as Field Keeps Growing
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke last month in Keene, N.H., the state where he is expected to announce his candidacy next week. Photo: Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer/Associated Press By John McCormick May 31, 2023 10:15 am ET Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is among at least three new entrants expected to join the 2024 Republican presidential field next week, as campaigning for the party’s nomination has intensified and become more combative. Aides to Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum all indicated to The Wall Street Journal that they are planning announcements. A large field could boost the prospects of former President Donald Trump s
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke last month in Keene, N.H., the state where he is expected to announce his candidacy next week.
Photo: Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer/Associated Press
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is among at least three new entrants expected to join the 2024 Republican presidential field next week, as campaigning for the party’s nomination has intensified and become more combative.
Aides to Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum all indicated to The Wall Street Journal that they are planning announcements.
A large field could boost the prospects of former President Donald Trump securing the party’s nomination, if a crowded contest leads to a more splintered vote. The announcements will come after a flurry of activity this week in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that will kick off the balloting for the primary contest early next year.
Christie, whose intentions were reported earlier by Axios, is expected to make his announcement Tuesday at an event in New Hampshire, which tends to favor more moderate candidates. He focused his 2016 presidential bid there as well, but finished sixth in the state’s primary and dropped out of the race.
The former two-term governor is known for his willingness to throw a political punch, with Trump being his most recent target. A U.S. attorney in New Jersey before he was governor, Christie is also known as a skilled debater. Polls of the field of current and potential GOP primary candidates have shown Christie in the low single digits.
Burgum is planning a June 7 announcement in Fargo, N.D., people familiar with his plans told the Journal last week.
Pence, who has also registered in the single digits in early polls, is expected to focus heavily on Iowa. He has long been popular among social conservatives and evangelical Christians, groups that dominate the state’s GOP caucuses.
Others already in the race include Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire biotech company founder.
Some additional Republican names still being mentioned as possible candidates include New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu
Nobody is predicting that the 2024 GOP field will be as big as the one in 2016, when there were 17 candidates in August 2015 for the first debate (10 were allowed on the main stage, based on polling, and seven were relegated to a secondary stage). But it does look increasingly likely that it could grow to double digits.
Trump, who is expected to make campaign appearances in Iowa on Wednesday and Thursday, has cheered on a larger field for 2024. He noted on his social-media platform last week that the primary race was “rapidly loading up with lots of people.”
Write to John McCormick at [email protected]
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