About him
Chris Christie was born Sept. 6, 1962, in Newwark, N.J.
His father’s early job was in an ice cream factory in Newark. Think about how amazing this country is,” Christie said at his presidential bid announcement. “That one generation removed from that guy who was working on the floor of the Breyers ice cream plant, his son is the two-term governor of the state that he was born and raised in.”
Christie earned his law degree from Seton Hall University. He practiced at a law firm, rising to partner, before he became a county legislator. The governor of New Jersey won the office in 2010 and was re-elected in 2014. Prior to that, he was U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey from 2002 to 2008.
He and his wife have four children.
His stand (entering the race)
Gov. Chris Christie declared his candidacy for president on Tuesday, June 30, in a 20-minute speech full of New Jersey-style swagger, vowing that as president, “there is one thing you will know for sure: I say what I mean, and I mean what I say.”
Christie, a two-term governor, offered himself up as a teller of difficult truths, who would never shy away from making the kind of painful choices required in the White House — even, he said, if “it makes you cringe every once in a while.”
“We must tell each other the truth about the problems we have and the difficulties of the solution, ” he said.
Taking swipes at his Republican rivals in the Senate, Christie, 52, said there would never be doubts about his ability to perform the job of president. And in an attack against Hillary Rodham Clinton, Christie lamented President Barack Obama’s foreign policy record.
“After seven years of a weak and feckless foreign policy, we better not turn it over to his second mate, Hillary Clinton, ” Christie said.
Christie also took a pointed swipe at his rivals who are in the U.S. Senate, like Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, who have never run a state government.
“Unlike some people who offer themselves for president in 2016, you won’t have to wonder whether I can do it or not,” he said, invoking the “economic calamity” he said he inherited in 2010 and the “unprecedented natural disaster,” Hurricane Sandy, that he weathered as governor.
Just 3 1/2 years ago, Christie seemed such an antidote to all that ailed the Republican brand that senior figures in the party pleaded with him to run for president as a substitute for Mitt Romney. But at the time of his June announcement, 55 percent of Republican primary voters said that they cannot envision voting for Christie, according to an NBC/Wall Street Journal Poll.
Before his official entry into the race, the Republican leader of a Democratic stronghold had been laying the groundwork for a White House run for months, traveling to early-voting states, delivering policy speeches and raising money for two political action committees.
In 2012, he decided against seeking the GOP nomination to challenge Obama, despite the urging of many prominent Republicans, saying he didn’t think he was ready.
His support
At the Iowa Freedom Forum back in January, Christie was already making his case with evangelicals, who are seen as pivotal in the early caucuses and primaries for Republicans.
If you want a candidate who agrees with you 100 percent of the time, I’ll give you a suggestion: Go home and look in the mirror. You are the only person you agree with 100 percent of the time,” he said. “You’ll always know who I am, you’ll always know what I believe and you’ll always know where I stand.”
To back up his conservative credentials, Christie proclaimed his opposition to gay marriage and abortion rights. He also rejected the idea that Republicans could be competitive in traditionally Democratic states by abandoning opposition to abortion rights. “And I’m living proof,” he said.
He’s also stressing his credentials to another early key state that will help decide on the nominee. He has devoted much of his time and resources to New Hampshire, a state that usually favors fiscal conservative candidates as opposed to religious conservatives who typically do well in Iowa. However, in late October, Christie said he would split his campaign time evenly between the two states going forward.
In the second GOP debate, Christie scored points against two of the top-tier candidates.
Christie captured the audience when he tweaked both corporate executives Donald Trump and Carly Fiorina for their back-and-forth over resumes. Fiorina was fired. Trump has declared bankruptcy. Christie said Americans don’t care.
“While I’m as entertained as anyone by this personal back-and-forth about the history of Donald and Carly’s career,” he said, “for the 55-year-old construction worker out in that audience tonight who doesn’t have a job, who can’t fund his child’s education — I gotta tell you the truth — they could care less about your careers.”
Buoyed by a well-reviewed second debate performance and in response to voters’ desire for an outsider candidate, Christie has subtly tweaked his message. He’s changed the slogan of his town hall meetings from “Tell it like it is” to “Our Country, Our Presidency.” And he has increasingly distanced himself from Washington, saying that he is the consummate outsider by virtue of being a Republican in Democrat-heavy New Jersey.
His critics
Christie, whose dazzling rise as a national Republican in his first term was matched only by his spectacular loss of stature at home in his second, entered the presidential race bearing little resemblance to the candidate he once expected to be.
The economic recovery he promised has turned into a cascade of ugly credit downgrades and anemic job growth. The state pension system he vowed to fix has descended into a morass of missed payments and lawsuits. The administration he pledged would be a paragon of ethics has instead conspired to mire an entire town in traffic and the governor’s office in scandal.
Also, despite his harsh criticism of Obama’s policies, Christie’s critics point to an image that still lingers unpleasantly in their minds three years later: The New Jersey governor giving the president a warm welcome in the wake of Hurricane Sandy. In addition to the “hug” that Obama received upon his arrival to see the destruction wreaked by the storm, the governor also had kind words for the feds’ response to helping storm victims in his home state. However, Christie’s lavish praise, delivered in the last days of the presidential race, may have represented a dramatic development in the campaign’s final stretch. Right or wrong, conventional wisdom in the party holds that it influenced the outcome. And so Christie remains one of the scapegoats for the GOP’s presidential loss in 2012.
