Long-time supporters and allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie are launching a super PAC to back his likely campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Fox News has confirmed.
The formation of the group, Tell It Like It Is, is considered a key step ahead of Christie’s expected entry into the White House race. Christie said on May 4 that he would make a 2024 decision in next two weeks, but has yet to announce his intentions.
Christie, who is considered one of the best communicators in the GOP, was once a strong ally of then-President Trump but has become one of the former president’s most vocal GOP critics.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who is considering another White House run, headlines a town hall in New Hampshire at Saint Anselm College, on March 27, 2023 in Manchester, New Hampshire. (Fox News)
Christie, a former two-term Republican governor and 2016 presidential contender, has argued that he has got the debate chops to potentially take down Trump, who is six months into his third White House run and remains the clear front-runner in the early GOP nomination national polls.
Brian Jones, a veteran Republican strategist and consultant who is steering the new super PAC, emphasized that Christie’s “willing to confront the hard truths that currently threaten the future of the Republican Party.”
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“Now more than ever we need leaders that have the courage to say not what we want to hear but what we need to hear,” added Jones, a senior adviser for the 2008 and 2012 Republican presidential nominees John McCain and Mitt Romney.
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Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie headlines an addiction, recovery and law enforcement round table discussion April 20, 2023 in Rochester, New Hampshire. (Fox News )
Christie placed all his chips in his campaign for president seven years ago in New Hampshire. However, his campaign crashed and burned after a disappointing and distant sixth-place finish in New Hampshire, far behind Trump who crushed the competition in the primary, boosting him towards the nomination and eventually the White House.
Christie became the first among the other GOP 2016 contenders to endorse Trump and for years was a top outside adviser to the then-president and chaired Trump’s high-profile commission on opioids. However, the two had a falling out after Trump’s unsuccessful attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss to President Biden. In the past two years, Christie has become one of the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP.
Former President Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago estate Tuesday, April 4, 2023, in Palm Beach, Florida, after being arraigned earlier in the day in New York City. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
“I know what I’m good at. I know how to articulate an argument. I know how to make it. I know how to land it. And I feel like I have the ideas that people are genuinely attracted to. So if you have those things, you have a good chance to be able to do it. No guarantees, but a good chance,” Christie, who was known during his tenure for the kind of in-your-face politics that Trump has also mastered, said in a Fox News Digital interview last month.
William P. Palatucci, a Republican National Committee member from New Jersey and longtime Christie adviser, will chair Tell It Like It Is. Another long-serving adviser Christie adviser, Russ Schriefer, will oversee the super PAC’s messaging as a senior adviser.
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Source familiar with the super PAC’s plans tells Fox News the group’s mission will be to “amplify what Christie’s saying on the campaign trail,” if as expected he launches a 2024 bid.
The sources added that “the commitments are there” in order to launch the super PAC and support Christie.
News of the super PAC’s formation was first reported by the New York Times.
