The former governor of New Jersey is the perfect example of someone who missed his opportunity. If he had run in the 2012 Republican primaries, he probably could have put up a good fight and he would have been in a strong position in 2016. Instead, he sat out the 2012 primaries and soured Republicans by publicly embracing Obama during the final weeks of the campaign. It’s often forgotten that Obama was struggling up until Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast and gave him a chance to act presidential. By embracing Obama, Christie did the right thing for New Jersey but he pretty much ruined his standing in the GOP.
In 2016, Christie has some success by running as the candidate who would prosecute Hillary Clinton but he was quickly overshadowed by Donald Trump. After dropping out, Christie was one of the first of the former candidates to fully embrace Trump. Christie took a lot of criticism for that and it’s debatable whether or not that paid off for him. Though Trump occasionally used Christie as a surrogate, he never seemed to like him that much or think very highly of him. Most notably, Trump never offered Christie an official role in his administration, despite Christie’s very public declaration that he would have liked to have been Attorney General.
Christie is out-of-office now and probably best remembered, if he is remembered, for being one of the many Trump confidantes to come down with COVID during the final month of the 2020 presidential campaign. Christie has said that he would be interested in running for president in 2024 and he’s hinting that he’s going to go for the anti-Trump lane but it’s hard to see where there’s an opening for him.
Of course, in 2024, Chris Christie will only be 63 years old. In 2028, he will still be younger than Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Biden were when they were nominated for the presidency. Christie’s moment may seem to have passed but then again, people used to say the same thing about Joe Biden.
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