Chris Christie Gets Super PAC Ahead of His Likely 2024 Bid

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The allies of former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey has formed a super PAC to support him in the nascent Republican primary, as he prepares for a likely campaign kickoff in the next two weeks, according to a group official and others briefed on the thing.

The candidacy of Mr. Christies is likely to focus in part on drawing a stark contrast to former President Donald J. Trump. Mr. Christie supported Mr. Trump in 2016 and worked with him during his presidency, but they split over Mr. Trump’s remarks. Trump on election night in 2020 had his career stolen from him.

People who have been close to Mr. Christie for years are leading the outside group, Tell It Like It Is, which is laying the groundwork for an impending announcement, one of the people briefed on the matter said. this. Brian Jones, an aide who advised Senator John McCain’s presidential bid in 2008 and Mitt Romney’s in 2012, will run in the effort.

William P. Palatucci, a longtime adviser to Mr. Christie and a member of the Republican National Committee, will be the chairman. Another long-serving adviser to Mr. Christie, Russ Schriefer, will oversee messaging as a senior adviser; and Brent Seaborn, a veteran data guru, will focus on voter targeting.

Maria Comella, an adviser who was also the chief of staff of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York, and Mike DuHaime, Mr. Christies top political strategist in 2016, is expected to run a campaign eventually if Mr. Christie announces the expectation. Anthony Scaramucci, the hedge fund adviser who served less than two weeks as a communications director in the Trump White House and has been a vocal Trump critic, said he would support Mr. Christie if he runs.

Mr. Christie is ready to face the hard truths that currently threaten the future of the Republican Party, Mr. Jones said in a statement. Now more than ever we need leaders who have the courage to say not what we want to hear but what we need to hear.

Mr. Christie recently said he would run if he believed he could win, but hinted there were organizational issues he needed to figure out. The existence of the super PAC and the pending announcement indicate that those issues have been resolved.

A Christie candidacy is seen as a long shot in a Republican Party remade with Mr. Trumps image eight years after Mr. Christie as president. Mr. Trump defeated him, and Mr. Christie dropped out after finishing sixth in New Hampshire, where he had staked his candidacy.

The main challenge of this campaign is to explain to the voters his change. He endorsed Mr. Trump in 2016, helping him with debate preparation and acting at times as an informal adviser during his presidency. Then, at the earliest time of Nov. 4, 2020, Mr. Christie broke with him when he questioned Mr. Trump that there was massive fraud in the election.

We haven’t heard anything today about any evidence, Mr. Christie said on an ABC News show. This kind of thing, all it does is ignite without warning. And we cannot allow inflammation without information.

Since then, Mr. Christie has been a vocal critic of Mr. Trump, speaking as a former federal prosecutor about the former president’s legal woes and portraying him as a loser who can no longer command crowds. which he used to do. The candidacy of Mr. Christies is watched by donors who either like what he says or see him as the best opportunity to destroy Mr. Trump, especially from the debate stage.

And like some other candidates, such as former Vice President Mike Pence, Mr. Christie appears to be banking on the notion that there are enough vestiges of the old Republican Party that he can appeal to.

Although New Hampshire is seen as a potentially favorable state in which Mr. Christie could enter, his advisers are not expected to pin his candidacy on a particular state. Instead, he is expected to try to get as much media attention as possible in an unconventional campaign that will travel to places where his message is most appealing.

He will come into the 2024 race as the person with the most coherent case against Mr. Trump while arguing that the fight needs to be brought directly to the former president.

Mr. Christie hopes to reduce some of the grievances that have grown at the roots of political discourse in the Republican Party since the parties’ nomination of Mr. Trump in 2016. Mr. Christie in the race, allies say, with the goal of delivering a message of hope.

But Mr. also shot repeatedly. Christie is Gov. Florida’s Ron DeSantis, a distant second to Mr. Trump in most public polls, illustrating Mr. DeSantiss at Disney in particular as an overreach.

Where are we headed now that if you express dissent in this country, the government allows you to punish you? To me, that’s what I always thought liberals did. And now all of a sudden here we are participating in this with a Republican governor, Mr. Christie said last month.

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