In his against-all-odds pursuit of the Republican presidential nomination, former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey has campaigned nearly completely in New Hampshire: More than 90 p.c of his occasions since February have been within the Granite State, based on a New York Times evaluation.
To hear Mr. Christie inform it, New Hampshire is his do-or-die state. If he doesn’t carry out properly right here, that can most likely be it.
“I can’t see myself leaving the race under any circumstances before New Hampshire,” he mentioned in an interview. “If I don’t do well in New Hampshire, then I’ll leave.”
Much as he did throughout his White House bid in 2016, Mr. Christie is betting on the unbiased streak of New Hampshire voters to validate his candidacy and catapult him into rivalry. (Mr. Christie finally completed sixth in New Hampshire that yr and dropped out a day later.)
But whereas he blended into the gang within the 2016 Republican major contest, Mr. Christie occupies a virtually solitary place on this race: because the candidate providing the harshest criticisms of the runaway front-runner, former President Donald J. Trump.
Mr. Christie’s central pitch to Republicans in New Hampshire is that they need to vote with a way of accountability and urgency, as a result of defeating Mr. Trump within the first-in-the-nation major often is the solely technique to halt his march to the nomination.
“The future of this country is going to be determined here,” Mr. Christie instructed a crowd this week at a neighborhood brewery, clutching an I.P.A. “If Donald Trump wins here, he will be our nominee. Everything that happens after that is going to be on our party and on our country. It’s up to you.”
Though Mr. Christie has improved in latest polls, he nonetheless trails Mr. Trump in New Hampshire by double digits, and by way more in nationwide polls and surveys of Iowa, the primary nominating state.
Yet within the interview, Mr. Christie mentioned he nonetheless noticed a path in New Hampshire. He pointed to quite a few previous candidates who “broke late” within the state, together with Senator John McCain of Arizona throughout his 2000 marketing campaign. Mr. Christie famous that Mr. McCain, who ended up successful New Hampshire, had pushed across the state “basically riding around in a Suburban with two aides.”
Mr. Christie is seemingly making an attempt to emulate that model. This week, he cruised round New Hampshire with solely a driver and two workers members. His marketing campaign doesn’t have workers members on the bottom in New Hampshire, and in all, he has solely 11 workers members on the payroll, based on his marketing campaign.
In the journey to New Hampshire, his first because the opening Republican major debate final month, Mr. Christie ratcheted up his criticisms of the previous president.
He now goes as far as to liken Mr. Trump to an autocratic chief, arguing that his conduct is beneath the workplace of the presidency. Mr. Christie tiptoes towards predicting how the previous president’s legal indictments will unfold, declaring that the nation can’t have a “convicted felon” as its chief. And he needles Mr. Trump with refined jabs at his idiosyncratic tendencies, taunting the previous president for his love of cable tv and obvious desire for well-done hamburgers.
But regardless of his willingness to tackle Mr. Trump, Mr. Christie has been denied his greatest shot at confronting the previous president immediately on the talk stage. Mr. Trump skipped the primary debate and appears unlikely to attend the second, which will likely be held in California on the finish of the month.
Mr. Christie, who has certified for the second debate, mentioned he had been drawing up contingency plans.
“I’m not going to let him get away with being a coward and running away,” Mr. Christie mentioned within the interview. “It could be meeting him out in front of his event as he’s making his way in. It could be confronting him on his way out. It could be actually going to the event. It could be a whole bunch of options that we’re going to try. I’m not going to tell them exactly which one I’m going to do, because then he would have his staff prepared for it and try to stop me.”
Tell It Like It Is PAC, the tremendous PAC supporting Mr. Christie’s bid, latched onto the New Hampshire-or-bust strategy early on. Ninety-six p.c of the roughly $1 million the group has spent on radio and tv promoting has been in New Hampshire markets, based on information from AdImpact, a media monitoring agency.
Mr. Christie’s occasions grew extra crowded as his swing by way of New Hampshire progressed, culminating with greater than 150 folks packed in a health club with out air-conditioning in Bedford. Audiences at his occasions tended to applaud his anti-Trump broadsides.
His voters are holding out hope, however they acknowledge his path is hard.
“You have to believe he’s got a chance,” mentioned Irene Bonner, 75, of Meredith, N.H., who mentioned she was usually apolitical however had been impressed to come back to an occasion by Mr. Christie’s powerful speak towards Mr. Trump.
“The party is so completely blinded by Trump, it just boggles my mind,” mentioned John Bonner, her husband. “After everything’s gone down and the things he’s said and done. But at least Christie is speaking up.” He added, “The rest of them really aren’t.”
If Mr. Trump does emerge because the nominee, Mr. Christie mentioned, he won’t again off in his criticism.
“I can’t imagine that I’ll ever keep quiet,” he mentioned within the interview. “I don’t think it’s in my personality, so I’ll continue to say what I believe is the truth.”
He added: “But I’ll also be critical of Joe Biden, I’m certain, because I have been since he became president, and I suspect he is not going to do some sort of miraculous turnaround that’s going to win my support. So I think I probably have difficult things to say about both of them if I was not the nominee.”
Asked if he would make an endorsement in a Trump-Biden rematch, the not often pithy Mr. Christie was succinct: “No.”
Source: www.nytimes.com