Chris Christie tells donors he can still win the GOP nomination

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign believes he still has the ability to beat former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, according to a donor memo released Friday.

Christie’s campaign targeted Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for being “too afraid” to directly criticize Trump as they described recent polls showing increased support for the former New Jersey governor, arguing that “winning candidates break late.” seconds in the note obtained by Axios Despite other great hopefuls of 2024 such as the former vice president mike pence and the senator from South Carolina. Tim Scott Suspending his campaigns, the memo suggests that Christie intends to stay in the race for the nation’s first New Hampshire. primary on January 23 and beyond.

“This will end up being a two-person race between Trump and someone else, and Christie is the only candidate positioned to aggressively take him on and outlast candidates too scared to do so,” the note said.

The campaign argued that “with its open primaries and strong Independent turnout, New Hampshire allows Christie to shift the turnout model and establish himself as the clear alternative.”

The memo pointed to a CNN/University of New Hampshire poll published Thursday that found Christie jumped 3 points to 14 percent in third place among likely Republican primary voters, behind Haley at 20 percent and Trump at 42 percent. Christie’s campaign touted his support among non-Republicans in the poll, as well as the finding that the former governor was the only candidate to see a net increase in favorability.

However, the same survey found that 47% of voters “would not vote in favor [him] under no circumstances”.

The memo also says New Hampshire’s primary is historically a better predictor of who will win the nomination than Iowa’s, as John McCain, Mitt Romney and Trump secured the state.

“This is nothing more than a desperate ploy to fire up donors to throw more cash into a money pit,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

At the time, Christie’s campaign argued that he “would win pretty much like [the] the field is narrowing” in South Carolina and “get ready for the long haul” in the following states, according to the memo.

The memo also pointed to McCain’s 2008 campaign, where he “was a distant third in New Hampshire and would spend most of November and December in fourth place nationally.”

The RealClearPolitics average for a 2024 Republican national primary, based on polls conducted between Oct. 27 and Nov. 14, shows Christie has 2.1% support, while Trump leads the field with 59%, followed by DeSantis with 14.8%, Haley with 9.6% and conservative. businessman Vivek Ramaswamy with 5.1%.

Christie’s campaign accused Haley and DeSantis of running for 2028, citing their fight for second place.

“The reality is that everyone is trying to do enough to finish second because they think that will position them as the favorite four years from now once Trump is out of the picture. And even if the field were cleared for one of they, will not risk their chance at second place by upsetting Trump’s most loyal supporters,” the memo said.

Neither Haley nor DeSantis immediately responded to DCNF’s requests for comment.

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