The former New Jersey governor Chris Christie will reportedly announce a second run for president next week, seeking to take the political fight over the 2024 Republican nomination to Donald Trump.
The news site Axios first said Christie, 60, would launch his campaign in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday.
Trump dominates Republican primary polling, leading his closest challenger, the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, by more than 30 points in most polling averages.
DeSantis, who endured a glitch-filled campaign launch on Twitter last week, is pursuing the same hard-right supporters as Trump.
Other candidates, including the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, the South Carolina senator Tim Scott and the former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson, have sought to distance themselves from the two men but have not made an impact.
Citing members of Christie’s campaign team, Axios said he planned to offer Republicans “a happy warrior who speaks his mind, takes risks and is happy to punch Donald Trump in the nose”.
The former governor aims to run “a national race … a non-traditional campaign … mixing it up in the news cycle and engaging Trump”, the site quoted a Christie adviser as saying.
The adviser added: “Will not be geographic dependent, but nimble.”
A political heavyweight with a New Jersey brawling style, Christie rose to national prominence after winning election in 2009 but suffered in Republican eyes after being photographed working with Barack Obama in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, during the 2012 presidential election.
In 2015 he left office under a cloud, amid the Bridgegate scandal about alleged political payback.
Christie ran for the Republican nomination in 2016 but aside from brutally taking down the Florida senator Marco Rubio on the debate stage, failed to make an impression.
He quickly endorsed Trump and was by his side as he won the nomination and then the White House. But Christie lost his role planning the Trump transition, he said because Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, resented Christie’s role in putting Kushner’s father in jail.
Christie proved unable to quit Trump, advising him through the 2020 election. He finally broke with him after the deadly January 6 assault on Congress.
According to Axios, Christie now hopes to be “joyful” on the campaign trail, aiming to hit “a more hopeful note aimed at America’s ‘exhausted majority’”.
Assessing Christie’s hopes, the Washington Post writer Aaron Blake said: “Say what you will about Chris Christie; he is a smart man … He must know that he has precious little chance in 2024 … and while he has insisted this isn’t just a kamikaze mission to take down Donald Trump, it’s difficult to see how it could amount to much else.”
Christie is expected to soon be joined in the race by Doug Burgum, the North Dakota governor, and Mike Pence, the former Indiana governor and vice-president to Trump.
Polling has shown the potential for a large primary field to split the vote and hand Trump the nomination without a majority, as happened in 2016.
Bill Kristol, a conservative commentator and Trump critic, said: “Chris Christie behaved reprehensibly from 2016 through 2020. Also, I wish him well in his efforts to stop Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis from being the Republican nominee in 2024.”
Adam Kinzinger, a former Republican congressman from Illinois turned anti-Trump conservative, said that though he appreciated “Christie’s newfound outrage, it’s important to remember he took down Rubio for Trump then dutifully endorsed him with googly eyes.”
