Outspoken and divisive New Jersey governor enters Republican presidential field and decries ‘bickering leaders’ from both political parties in Washington

After years of testing the national political waters as a charismatic governor from the north-east, Chris Christie announced on Tuesday that he would seek the White House, setting up what would either be a spectacular comeback or a summary conclusion to a turbulent career.

Speaking buoyantly to a crowd of supporters at a New Jersey high school while protesters chanted outside, Christie, 52, pitched himself as a cure for the national political ague, saying he would reinvigorate the debate with frank speech.

“I am now ready to fight for the people of the United States of America,” Christie said. “America is tired of hand-wringing, of indecisiveness … in the Oval Office. And that is why, today, I am proud to announce my candidacy.”

“I mean what I say, and I say what I mean, and that’s what America needs right now. … You’re going to get what I think, whether you like it or not, whether it makes you cringe every once in a while or not.”

Decrying “bickering leaders in Washington DC”, Christie held out his record as a fiscally conservative governor with a record early in his tenure of bipartisan victories as evidence of change he could bring to the national capital.

“The last six years we’ve proved not only can you govern this state, you can lead it to a better day,” he said. “Americans are filled with anxiety because they look to Washington DC, and they see a government that not only doesn’t work together any more – it doesn’t talk to each other any more.

“I’m here today to tell you that anxiety can be swept away by strong leadership and decisiveness to lead America once again.”

Christie had previewed the announcement in a conference call with donors and close supporters in his home state of New Jersey.

A close-knit crowd of Christie backers filed into Livingston high school, a brick building in the middle of a tidy suburb, for the event on Tuesday morning.

School was closed for the announcement, leaving teachers free to protest outside, red-shirted and beside an inflatable camel that said “hump day” on its side. Protesters said Christie had broken a promise to protect their pensions and insulted them in the process.



Louise Auble, a teacher in the Cedar Grove school district, said she was out protesting against the man she called a bully, over pension fund cuts.

“In 2015, I’m taking home less money than in 2010 because we had to increase our contributions for pensions,” Auble said. “He was going to fund our pensions, he was told by the court to fund our pensions, and he told them ‘arrest me’.



“Which is typical, he’s very disrespectful to everyone who disagrees with him. We teach our kids in school not to be bullies, and so I am strongly against a bully being president of the United States or even running for that esteemed office.”

The school’s gymnasium meanwhile was stuffed with well-heeled supporters, all waving blue “Christie 2016” signs, lettered in white.

Rose Marie Nicholson and her daughter LeighAnn Errico came out to Livingston in support of Christie’s bid for the presidency.

“It makes me heartsick that we are no longer respected in this country, our word is no longer our bond, and that’s the result of seven years of deception and lies,” Nicholson said. “What he’s doing – hopefully Chris Christie will do something about it.

“I’m from Chris Christie’s town of Mendham, I see him every morning at the local coffee shop. He’s as real and genuine as they come.”

Errico, who serves on the board of directors of New Jersey Heroes with Mary Pat Christie, said the governor’s straight-talking ways and bold leadership appealed to her.

“We love him, and his wife is great.”

The candidate entered the overheated room to a Bon Jovi hit – not Bruce Springsteen, a personal favorite of the governor who is known to disagree with the governor’s politics.

Speaking without notes or a Teleprompter, Christie recalled a blue-collar upbringing in Newark, where his father worked at an ice cream plant. The governor quoted his mother, now deceased, as telling him: “If you just work hard enough, you can be anything.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A protester holds up a sign outside the venue where Chris Christie announced his campaign. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Christie had sharp words for the president, a figure he once literally embraced, and for the likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

“President Obama lives in his own world, not in our world,” Christie said. “After seven years of a weak and feckless foreign policy run by Barack Obama, we better not turn it over to his second mate, Hillary Clinton.”

During Christie’s tenure, a budget crisis in New Jersey has deepened, leading to a record nine credit downgrades for the state by the Moody’s ratings agency.

Pressure from the budget crisis has mixed with controversies of a more personal flavor to wreck Christie’s approval rating, which now bumps along at 30%, down from a high of near 70% in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, when the governor’s tireless meetings and appearance of decision in crisis drove a popularity surge in a state that suffered billions of dollars in damages from the storm.

Lately voters in the Garden State have been recalling things about their governor that they like less. His abrasive handling of constituents who challenge him at town hall meetings has helped to win him national visibility, but a reputation at home as a bully.

Public frustration with his perceived lack of candor on the involvement of his staff and close associates in the closure of access lanes to the George Washington bridge in September 2013, meanwhile, produced a double-digit slide in his approval rating. One former Christie friend – a classmate at Livingston high school – has pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges and said the lane closures were retribution for a political favor that was not extended.

Christie has been a divisive figure from the start. In an early campaign, to become a county official from his northern New Jersey home, Christie settled a lawsuit with multiple opponents who accused him of defamation in his campaign attacks. As US attorney for the district of New Jersey, Christie was praised for collaring corrupt officials – and accused of taking partisan marching orders from the George W Bush White House that had appointed him to the post, despite his having no experience as a prosecutor.

A Chris Christie presidency would be 'very disturbing', New Jerseyans warn Read more

The latest controversy to attend Christie’s life as a public servant, however, has proven the most damaging to his reputation, leaving him so unpopular in his home state that New Jersey Republicans said in a recent survey that they would rather support the Wisconsin governor, Scott Walker, for president.

Some Christie supporters fear that what looked like a window of opportunity for Christie in 2016 has now closed, as better-financed candidates with a similar moderate profile and potential establishment appeal – former Florida governor Jeb Bush, for example – have joined the race.



Christie’s nascent campaign, meanwhile, has pointed out that he is a rare Republican with proven success in a blue state, and has argued that Christie has an opportunity to register in national polls with a star turn in the Republican presidential debates.

That theory, however, was endangered by rules that potentially could close the debates to all but the top 10 candidates. Polling averages show Christie hanging just around the cutoff, with support in the low single digits.