Poll numbers be damned: Chris Christie tells donors he can still win GOP nomination

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s presidential campaign believes he still has the ability to beat former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024, according to a donor memo released Friday.

Christie’s campaign took aim at Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley for being “too afraid” to directly criticize Trump, while also highlighting recent polls showing increase support for the former governor of New Jersey, arguing that “winning candidates are late,” according to the note obtained by Axios. Despite other great candidates for 2024, such as the former vice president Mike Pence and the senator from South Carolina. Tim Scott By suspending his campaigns, the memo suggests that Christie intends to remain in the race until the first-in-the-nation election in New Hampshire. primary on January 23 and beyond.

“This will end up being a two-person race between Trump and someone else, and Christie is the only candidate positioned to take him on aggressively and outlast candidates too scared to do so,” the memo reads. (RELATED: ‘Then I’ll Leave’: Chris Christie Vows to Drop Out of Presidential Race if He Can’t Flip This Key State)

The campaign argued that “with its open primaries and strong turnout from independents, New Hampshire allows Christie to change the turnout pattern and establish himself as the clear alternative.”

The memo pointed toward a CNN/University of New Hampshire. survey released Thursday that found Christie jumped 3 points to 14% in third place among likely GOP primary voters, behind Haley at 20% and Trump at 42%. Christie’s campaign highlighted his support among non-Republicans in the survey, as well as the finding that the former governor was the only candidate to see a net increase in favorability.

However, the same survey found that 47% of voters “would not vote for [him] under any circumstances.”

The memo also claims that the New Hampshire primary is historically a better indicator of who will win the nomination than Iowa, as John McCain, Mitt Romney and Trump secured the state.

“This is nothing more than a desperate ploy to trick donors into throwing more of their cash into a money pit,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Note from Chris Christie by Daily Call News Foundation

Christie’s campaign then argued that “it will gain strength as [the] The field is narrowing” in South Carolina and “preparing for the long haul” in the following states, according to the memo.

The memo also took aim at McCain’s 2008 campaign, where “he was a distant third in New Hampshire and would spend most of November and December in fourth place nationally.”

The real and clear policy average for the 2024 national Republican primary, according to polls conducted between October 27 and November 14, indicates that Christie has 2.1% support, while Trump leads the field with 59%, followed by DeSantis with 14.8%, Haley with 9.6% and the conservative businessman Vivek Ramaswamy with 5.1%.

Christie’s campaign accused Haley and DeSantis of running in 2028, citing their fight for second place.

“The reality is that each of them is trying to do enough to finish second, because they believe that will position them as favorites four years from now, once Trump is out of the picture. And even if the field were cleared for one of them, they are not going to risk their chance to finish in second place by upsetting Trump’s most loyal supporters,” the memo reads.

Neither Haley nor DeSantis immediately responded to DCNF requests for comment.

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