Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie has taken an unusual approach to campaigning by not holding recent events in New Hampshire, one of the key early GOP primary contests.
New Hampshire will be the second GOP contest, likely in late January after Iowa’s caucus occurs on January 15, 2024. Interestingly, Christie has not physically campaigned in the Granite State since June 23, nearly four weeks ago.
Christie’s strategy seems to be focused on meeting the debate requirements of the Republican National Committee.
As Politico detailed:
The problem is that candidates must clear a 40,000-donor threshold to qualify for the August 23 debate, and a small state like New Hampshire isn’t where the money’s at. So instead of hitting the trail these past three weeks, Christie hit the television and radio circuit. While other candidates have flooded the state in Christie’s absence — former President Donald Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley included — he hasn’t set foot in New Hampshire since June 23
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses a gathering during a town hall-style meeting April 20, 2023, in Henniker, NH. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)
“Media and the way people consume news has drastically changed. We’ve said from the beginning that this is going to be a nimble and modern campaign with a focus using earned media — whether that is taking it to Trump or getting to 40,000 donors,” a Christie spokesperson told Politico.
Despite Christie’s nearly four-week absence from New Hampshire, he is tied with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for second place, according to a July American Pulse survey. That poll found 10.5 percent of New Hampshire Republicans support DeSantis, while ten percent support Christie, well within the survey’s margin of error.
A National Research poll taken this month found Christie in third place, eight points behind DeSantis’s 15 percent.
Christie’s strategy in focusing on other states is drastically different from DeSantis’s approach, which focuses on early primary states like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina to quell donors’ fears about his lack of movement in the polls, according to a leaked confidential campaign memo.
In the 2016 New Hampshire primary, Christie came in sixth place, receiving 7.4 percent of the vote.
Christie’s campaign revealed that the former New Jersey governor will be reemerging on the campaign trail soon, with a town hall event in South Carolina scheduled for Friday and events to come in New Hampshire “later this month,” according to Politico.
Jordan Dixon-Hamilton is a reporter for Breitbart News. Write to him at
