Republican presidential candidate former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
OAN’s Brooke Mallory
3:39 PM – Thursday, November 2, 2023
As former President Donald Trump leads the rest of the 2024 GOP field, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie is attempting to position himself as a contender who is “prepared for the long run.”
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“As the only campaign taking Trump on directly, we plan to break last. And by running… lean efficiently now, Christie will have the resources necessary to seize the opportunity when it arrives,” said a new presentation laying out Christie’s plan to stay in the race.
The tactics employed by other contenders, which Christie’s team characterized as “get to [Trump’s] right, run as [his] clone, ignore him, try to please everyone,” aren’t working, according to the presentation.
“The goal is to outlast,” read another slide from Christie’s team.
The slideshow was originally made public by Politico, and Christie’s team confirmed to The Hill that it was shared with the American Opportunity Alliance in recent weeks.
The presentation highlighted how Christie’s campaign has been seeking to raise money while minimizing its “burn rate.”
Christie’s campaign revenues for the most recent fundraising quarter were around $3.8 million, trailing far behind the front-runner, Trump, and other GOP contenders, including former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley and Florida governor Ron DeSantis.
“Trump’s conduct has proven that he is unfit to be president again. Chris Christie is the only one willing to make that case,” the presentation stated. “While every other candidate is running for second place (or a spot in Trump’s cabinet), Christie is running to win by drawing a clear contrast.”
Christie has been a very vocal critic of the former GOP president. He has also called Trump’s lead in the race “fatally flawed,” forecasting that the 45th president would be found guilty in one of his legal disputes.
The former New Jersey governor explicitly criticized Trump for missing the debate with his rivals during the second GOP presidential debate in September. He has also declared himself eligible for next week’s third debate in Miami.
The most recent polling averages from FiveThirtyEight show Christie with 2.9 percent of the vote in the Republican primary, trailing Haley with 7.6 percent and DeSantis with 12.8 percent.
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