Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie Running for 2024 Republican Nomination

(CNN) — The former governor of New Jersey Chris Christie ran for the presidential candidacy of the Republican Party for the 2024 elections on Tuesday, in what represents his second attempt to reach the White House and a new confrontation with former President Donald Trump, favorite of the party and former ally of Christie.

Tuesday’s announcement comes the day after Chris Sununu, a moderate Republican and governor of New Hampshire, decided not to run, and less than 24 hours after former Vice President Mike Pence officially entered the race. As in 2016, Christie will seek to appeal to the more traditionally conservative and pro-establishment Republicans, while hoping to emerge as a foil to both Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has been on a rapid rise.

In addition to Trump and DeSantis, others have already announced that they will run for the Republican nomination. They included former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott. Pence, who has already filed to enter the race, and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum are expected to join the list on Wednesday.

As CNN previously reported, Christie believes he is best positioned to take on Trump in the primary while also engaging independents in a potential general election showdown with President Joe Biden. The ex-governor begins his aspiration with the support of a new political action commission called “Tell it like it is” and made up of allies who anticipated his campaign.

Christie’s flirtation with presidential politics began in 2011, when she considered running in the primary to face then-President Barack Obama a year later. She backtracked, watching his prestige wane among Republicans heading into 2016. His 2016 campaign was short-lived, most memorable being Christie’s taunting of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in a debate in February.

Both eventually withdrew—Christie after finishing sixth in the New Hampshire primary—and endorsed Trump.

But Christie went one step further.

He led Trump’s transition team, though his job was ultimately scrapped and Christie himself sidelined days after the election, and later became a close adviser to the former president. He was raised as a potential candidate for a number of management positions, though none materialized. He even participated in mock debates with Trump in 2020. (Christie said he believes he contracted COVID-19 from Trump, who did not disclose a positive test result, during one of those sessions.)

Following Trump’s defeat and subsequent attempt to overturn the 2020 election, Christie turned on him and tried to establish himself as one of Trump’s leading Republican critics.

“We keep losing and losing and losing,” Christie said at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership conference late last year. “The reason we are losing is because Donald Trump puts himself before everyone else.”

He also said that Trump “incited” the January 6, 2021 insurrection at the US Capitol “in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and Congress into doing exactly what he had said in his own words the week before. : annul the elections”.

In a interview with Axios this year, he vowed never to endorse Trump again.

“I can’t help you,” Christie said. “No way,” she added.

Christie was first elected governor of New Jersey in 2009, unseating Democrat Jon Corzine. He was a New Jersey federal prosecutor from 2002 to 2008, during which time he successfully prosecuted the father of Trump’s son-in-law and former aide, Jared Kushner, on criminal tax evasion and witness tampering charges.

Christie himself became embroiled in the “Bridgegate” scandal during his second term as governor. Emails and text messages from top advisers showed that the George Washington Bridge lane closures in September 2013 — which caused massive traffic jams — were due to political vendetta after the city’s Democratic mayor refused to endorse Christie’s gubernatorial re-election.

A federal investigation determined that Christie had no knowledge of the decision to close the lanes, but scandal continued to haunt the former governor.

Fredreka Schouten contributed to this report.