Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is playing a man-to-man while everybody else in the GOP presidential nomination race is playing a zone, to put it in basketball terminology. And Christie is focused on one opponent, Donald Trump, where as Nikki Haley, Ron DeSantis, Vivek Ramaswamy and the rest of the Republican field are aiming variously at so-called “woke” agendas, President Biden’s alleged failures, China, and, often enough, NATO and Ukraine.
Christie’s acute focus on breaking Trump’s grip at the top of the party has been centered on winning enough support to meet the GOP’s standards to participate in the primary debates, where he envisions his debate skills will entertain the crowd as he eviscerates the “cry baby” Trump.
Aww poor Donald Trump. He might have to defend his record on the debate stage?
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) July 11, 2023
If Donald Trump doesn’t show up, then he’s a coward. I’ll tell the truth directly to his face.
Chip in today: https://t.co/vSmNlyEk0s pic.twitter.com/ggPMZHUJPk
This week Christie reached the level of supporters — 40,000 unique donors — required to earn a debate invitation, and the former Governor is celebrating by telling people to “get your popcorn.” The reference to the venerable cinema snack staple, of course, is Christie promising the debate equivalent of a movie blockbuster.
(Incidentally, the very first so-called blockbuster was Steven Spielberg‘s Jaws, about a hungry shark that terrorizes the status quo, as Christie hopes to do.)
After being in this race for only a month, we’ve received over 40k individual donations to our campaign and met all RNC requirements to reach the debate stage. Americans are ready for someone to stand up to Donald Trump, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.
— Chris Christie (@GovChristie) July 13, 2023
Get your popcorn🍿 pic.twitter.com/HcilCP0nfi
In announcing his fundraising achievement, Christie also revealed that his campaign is already eight times stronger against Donald Trump than when he first ran for President seven years ago, when Trump won the nomination and the presidency in 2016.
Back then, Christie says, in the first 35 days after he announced his candidacy, his team had collected only 5,000 unique donors. This time it took just 35 days for Christie to reach the 40,000 unique donor threshold, an 8x increase in his support for his candidacy.
