Despite Trump’s SC popularity, Christie looks to break though in early primary state
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie finds himself polling in the single digits in South Carolina, in a state where the former President Donald Trump he once supported remains popular among GOP presidential primary voters.
But as Christie’s presidential campaign is still a small operation, he plans on spending lots of time in New Hampshire and South Carolina, the latter of which has picked the eventual GOP nominee in every primary cycle since 1980, with the exception of 2012.
Christie brought an anti-Trump message to a state where the former president has 41% of the support among GOP primary voters, according to an April Winthrop University poll. A Fox Business poll released Sunday had Trump at 48% in the state, with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in second place at 14%. Christie only had 2% of the support among S.C. GOP voters.
Those numbers don’t deter Christie.
“Campaigns matter, and I think telling the truth matters,” Christie told reporters after speaking for nearly two hours at a town hall in Columbia on Friday. “If all we’re going to do is go by the polls, let’s just not even have the election. Take a poll today. You’re fine. Good. Okay. It’s Trump. Good. Let’s do it. It’s not the way it works. If you took that eight years ago, Jeb Bush would have won South Carolina. He didn’t.”
Christie is critical of other candidates who don’t criticize Trump in fear of alienating those who support the former president, who has been indicted twice and may soon be indicted in relation to the Jan. 6 investigation.
“No politician in this country owns any voters. Our birthright is that we get to listen and speak and reason and decide. And he doesn’t own any voter in this state, or Iowa or New Hampshire, or Nevada or any other states that are coming after it,” Christie said. “So they shouldn’t be afraid of anything.”
Christie said campaigns that try to re-litigate the past are not successful, pointing to false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
“Candidates who look backwards are not winning candidates, and they’re not leaders. I will tell you this: I’m tired, tired of hearing about the 2020 election,” Christie told a packed room at Senate’s End on Friday evening. “I’m not naive, everybody. I know that there’s always a little bit of monkey business that goes on in every election, but not enough to change the result of an election in six states. So let’s start there. It didn’t happen.”
Christie showed himself personable during the town hall meeting. He even included one-liner quips that had attendees, several of whom said they were looking for a moderate candidate, reacting as if they were at a comedy club.
Even as Christie is openly being critical of Trump, he’s trying to thread a needle to convince Trump’s supporters to change who they’re backing. Christie reminds people he helped Trump with debate in 2016 and 2020 and chaired Trump’s opioid and drug abuse commission.
Christie said Trump failed the country, not completing a wall on the southern border and adding to the U.S. debt.
Christie broke with Trump after the former president said the 2020 election was stolen.
Christie likens race to Ronald Reagan 1980s election
The former governor of New Jersey, where Democrats control the Legislature, likens the current state of affairs to the late 1970s ahead of the 1980 election when the country suffered through high inflation, an energy crisis, people worried about their jobs, and Soviets invading another country.
“What did we do when confronted with that? In 1980, what we did was turn to a conservative governor from a blue state who knew how to solve problems,” Christie said, referring to Ronald Reagan. “What we need in the government now is someone who knows how to run the government and solve those problems and has done it under the toughest circumstances.”
Christie, who served two terms as New Jersey’s governor, points out that all the other governors in the 2024 GOP presidential race had worked with Republican-led Legislatures in their home states.
“I would have given my right arm for a week, with a Republican Legislature; they would have never slept. The things we would have been able to do, but I didn’t. So what I had to learn was how to bring people together and get things done,” Christie said.
During his remarks, Christie answered questions on border issues, saying he would sign an executive order to send the National Guard to the southern border to stop fentanyl from coming across. He added he would have the CIA and the Department of Defense to come up with a plan to take aggressive action against drug cartels in Mexico.
When it comes to protecting gun rights in the wake of mass shootings, he said the focus has to be on mental health.
“The Second Amendment gives people the right to buy and bear arms,” Christie said. “It it’s not like we can treat it, in my opinion, as if it’s an inferior amendment.”
He added the federal government is taking reasonable actions to control guns. The federal government is sending money to states to administer red flag laws and other crisis interventions programs, according to CBS News.
Christie said he would protect Social Security, by adding means testing and raising the retirement age for workers who are far from retirement, such as people who are in their 30s or younger.
“I’m not someone who will favor raising taxes, because I think our taxes are high enough, and I don’t think we need to do it, and I think we can make those other kinds of adjustments,” Christie said.
Christie touched on who he would appoint to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying he would have appointed Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh (who both were appointed to the court by Trump).
“I would look for the very best qualified people who are consistent with my philosophy of the role of federal courts in our governmental system,” Christie said.
Despite his small operation now, Christie said he plans on staffing up in the Palmetto State.
“We are going to spend as much time here in South Carolina as we spend in New Hampshire, which is a lot,” Christie said.
This story was originally published July 24, 2023 at 2:45 PM with the headline "Despite Trump’s SC popularity, Christie looks to break though in early primary state."
