Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is set to announce his 2024 presidential campaign next week during a town hall in Manchester, New Hampshire, a source confirmed to Fwrd Axis News on Wednesday morning.
Axios was the first to report of Christie entering the race.
The decision to enter the 2024 race for the GOP nomination will make it the second presidential campaign for Christie, who finished in sixth place in the 2016 New Hampshire primary. After he dropped out of the race, he endorsed Donald Trump just days before Super Tuesday, giving Trump momentum to take control of the field.
Christie reportedly sees himself as the lone candidate willing to take on Trump and as someone who can reach out to enough independents to beat President Joe Biden in the general election.
While Christie and Trump became allies, including helping the former president prepare for debates against Joe Biden in 2020, the two have recently had differences with Christie being a vocal critic of Trump. Despite the former president being the Republican front-runner in the polls, Christie has attacked him, saying he is not the future of the Republican Party.
“Donald Trump is a TV star, nothing more, nothing less,” Christie said last month. “Let me suggest to you that in putting him back in the White House, the reruns will be worse than the original show.”
Christie will join a growing and crowded Republican field once he officially announces. The former governor will join Ron DeSantis, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson, Nikki Haley, talk radio host Larry Elder, and tech businessman Vivek Ramaswamy have all already announced a bid.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu are mulling White House bids.
“If it turns out that I’m on a debate stage in August of this year and Donald Trump decides to be on it, you can be sure that we’ll have some exchanges that I hope will be illuminating to the public about both him and me,” Christie said.
