Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

Chris Christie Will Play the Role of Trump Spoiler

The former New Jersey governor’s chances of winning the Republican nomination are zero to none, but he still has a place in the race.

June 5, 2023 at 5:32 PM UTC

By Jonathan Bernstein

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The Republican is expected to announce his candidacy for president on June 6.
Photographer: Bridget Bennett/Bloomberg

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Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is planning to announce his presidential candidacy on June 6. While Christie has conventional credentials, his chances of winning are slim to none. Among other things, he’s polling between 1% and zero. He found no support in 2016, and it’s hard to see what he’s done since to change that outcome.

That doesn’t mean Christie’s campaign has to be a useless exercise in vanity. He’s already talked quite a bit about taking on former President Donald Trump, who enjoys a double-digit lead over all potential Republican rivals. Instead of running what is likely to be futile race for the GOP nomination, Christie could dedicate his campaign to taking down Trump.