New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, joined by his family, announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination on June 30 at Livingston High School in Livingston Township, New Jersey.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Christie takes questions from Bruce Rastetter at the Iowa Ag Summit on March 7 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
Christie jokes with host Laura Ingraham as he addresses the annual Conservative Political Action Conference at National Harbor, Maryland, on February 26.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
Christie campaigns for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker during a campaign stop at the GOP field office in Hudson, Wisconsin, on September 29, 2014.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Christie enters the Borough Hall in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on January 9, 2014, to apologize to Mayor Mark Sokolich for the George Washington Bridge lane closures -- a scandal that became known in the media as "Bridgegate."
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Christie speaks at a news conference on January 9, 2014, in Trenton, New Jersey, about his knowledge of an alleged traffic study that stopped traffic at the George Washington Bridge. Christie addressed allegations that his deputy chief of staff signaled for the New York and New Jersey Port Authority to close lanes on the George Washington Bridge to punish the Fort Lee mayor for not endorsing Christie during the election.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Kena Betancur/Getty Image
Christie arrives to speak at his election night event after winning a second term as governor on November 5, 2013, in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Christie defeated his Democratic opponent, Barbara Buono, by a large margin.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Julio Cortez-Pool/Getty Images
Christie talks to business owners affected by a massive fire that burned a large portion of the Seaside Park boardwalk, which had recently been rebuilt after Superstorm Sandy, on September 14, 2013, in Seaside Heights, New Jersey.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Christie speaks to members of the Hudson County Building Trades Council after receiving their support for his re-election campaign for governor on July 1, 2013, in Jersey City, New Jersey.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
JEWEL SAMAD/AFP/Getty Images
Christie greets President Barack Obama on his arrival in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on October 31, 2012, to visit areas hit by Superstorm Sandy. Christie was later criticized by some in his party for his warm welcome of Obama.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
Christie updates members of the media on damage and recovery efforts related to Superstorm Sandy on October 30, 2012, from the emergency operations center at State Police Headquarters in Ewing, New Jersey.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
JIM WATSON/Getty Images
Christie and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speak with Romney adviser Bob White on board the Romney campaign bus in Mount Vernon, Ohio, on October 10, 2012.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Christie takes the stage to deliver the keynote address at the Republican National Convention on August 28, 2012, in Tampa, Florida.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Christie speaks as he endorses former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney for the Republican presidential nomination on October 11, 2011, in Lebanon, New Hampshire.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Christie and his family lay white roses on wreckage pulled from Ground Zero during the dedication of the Empty Sky Memorial for 9/11 at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey, on September 10, 2011.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Jessica Kourkounis/Getty Images
Christie speaks at a Reform Agenda Town Hall meeting at the New Jersey Manufacturers Insurance Company facility on March 29, 2011, in Hammonton, New Jersey.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Bobby Bank/Getty Images
Christie, his wife, Mary Pat Christie, and their children attend the third annual New Jersey Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony in Newark, New Jersey, on May 2, 2010.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Stephen Chernin/Getty Images
Christie waves to supporters with Lt. Gov.-elect Kim Guadagno, left, on November 3, 2009, in Parsippany, New Jersey. Christie defeated incumbent Democrat Jon Corzine.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Hiroko Masuike/Getty Images
Christie and his running mate, Kim Guadagno, left, pose for photographs after making phone calls to voters at Monmouth County Republican Headquarters in Freehold, New Jersey, on November 2, 2009.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
William Thomas Cain/Getty Images
Before getting into politics, Christie was a New Jersey attorney. Here Christie speaks with the media on May 8, 2007, outside the federal courthouse in Camden, New Jersey, after six men were arrested on charges of planning to attack the Fort Dix military base.
Photos: Chris Christie's career in photos
Stephen Chernin/Getty Images
Christie speaks to the media about an FBI sting with Russian Gen. Sergei Fomenko, right, of the Federal Security Service and FBI Agent Louie Allen on August 13, 2003, in Newark, New Jersey.
Keene, New HampshireCNN
—
Spend a few days with Chris Christie in New Hampshire and you will see a man making up for lost time.
The New Jersey governor, who so recently was celebrated as the future Republican standard-bearer, has watched his front-runner status slip as new faces enter the race for the party’s presidential nomination.
In New Hampshire, a state his aides consider to be crucial for his success, only 3 percent of Republican voters say they plan to support him, according to a recent WMUR Granite State poll. (The same survey found that just 5 percent had made a firm commitment, a fact Christie himself quickly reminds anyone who trots it out.)
In 2014, Christie put down roots in New Hampshire for his future campaign, paying regular visits to the state.
But until recently, political analysts and voters here have complained that Christie has been absent since the midterm elections in November.
“He lost six months’ time since last November to April. He was only here once during that period,” Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire state party chairman, told CNN. “That was a mistake. Christie cannot afford to languish for the next three to six months.”
Which might be why, for two days this week, Christie embarked on a meet-and-greet tour of the Granite State, where he visited a drug treatment center in Manchester, fielded face-to-face questions with voters at a restaurant in Sunapee, selfie’d his way through a breakfast diner in Amherst, delivered keynote addresses at party fundraiser in Keene and hosted a town hall-style gathering in Dover.
The swing was his first public trip since Christie’s former aides were indicted for their alleged involvement in a scheme to shut down lanes on a major bridge in New Jersey as an act of retribution against a local official who didn’t endorse the governor’s re-election in 2013. The fallout from the scandal has not helped Christie’s image with Republican voters, even though investigators were unable to find evidence tying him to the scheme. Now, as the GOP primary seasons races forward, Christie is working fast to move on.
“I don’t think you would find one administration, whether it’s at the governor’s level or at the presidential level, that hasn’t made mistakes and had problems,” Christie said in Manchester Friday morning when a reporter asked how primary voters might perceive his aides’ involvement in the bridge scandal. “What matters is how you respond to it.”
Although support for him has softened here in the past year, his New Hampshire backers said they don’t think the 2013 bridge fiasco will ultimately upend his chances.
“It would have to be something bigger than shutting down a lane on a bridge. Come on,” said Mary Grenier from Lempster. “They’re always late for work in New York. It’s a mess to begin with. So you have one less lane or two less lanes? Big deal!”
But, like others who spoke to CNN, Grenier stressed that Christie will need to spend more time in the state than he has over the past six months.
In April, however, Christie picked up the pace with his first big multi-town visit of the year. After Christie’s trip this week, he plans to pay two more visits this month, carrying on a busy travel schedule that is likely to carry on into primary season.
“You’re going to have me around,” Christie promised a group of supporters that jammed into a restaurant in Sunapee to see him Thursday. “You’ll be able to ask me almost anything you want.”
And ask they did. Near the restaurant’s bar, surrounded by wood-paneled walls lined with big game trophies, onlookers bombarded Christie with questions about immigration, student loan reform and whether he could survive a Republican primary without catering to right-wing ideological tastes.
“What I’m looking for is a Republican who can be in the middle. The problem is, in order to win the primary, you’ve got to be extreme,” Art Bobruff, a man from Springfield, told Christie as he nursed a cocktail.
“Listen,” Christie said. “I think you just have to be who you are. If that’s good enough to win the nomination, then it’s good enough. I wouldn’t want to be President without being able to be who I am.”
Bobruff shot him a skeptical look.
“But you don’t feel the need to appeal to the right in order to get the Republican nomination?” Bobruff asked.
“I want to appeal to everybody, but I want to appeal to everybody on my terms,” Christie said.
Indeed, that does appear to the theme of Christie’s presidential endeavor – his visits are branded as the “Tell It Like It Is” tour. When asked about hot-button topics during his trip, Christie, at times, didn’t sound like a typical Republican presidential candidate.
“I think global warming is real. I don’t think that’s deniable,” Christie said during the fundraiser Thursday in Keene. “And I do think human activity contributes to it.”
When quizzed on immigration, Christie wouldn’t go as far as to say he supported providing a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the United States illegally, but he expressed openness to reforms that would provide some sort of legal work status for them. He also made clear his opposition to building a border-wide fence atop Mexico, a campaign promise other candidates have adopted to please immigration hardliners in the past.
He also appeared to take a veiled shot at his potential competitors on the right, particularly Republican lawmakers like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who fought a battle over Obamacare in 2013 that ended in a government shutdown.
“We need leadership in Washington again that understands that closing down the government isn’t the right thing to do,” Christie said. “When you’re hired to govern, and you close down the government, it seems to me a de facto failure.”
It’s that kind of real talk that Christie believes will make him stand out in the field, but as some here noted, may have consequences down the line.
“He says what’s on his mind, even if it’s blunt,” said Whitney Aldrich, a Republican from Walpole who watched him speak Thursday. “But it could get him into trouble.”
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has said his decision to run for the Republican nomination will be based on two things: his family and whether he can lift America's spirit. His father and brother are former Presidents.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has created a political committee that will help him travel and raise money while he considers a 2016 bid. Additionally, billionaire businessman David Koch said in a private gathering in Manhattan this month that he wants Walker to be the next president, but he doesn't plan to back anyone in the primaries.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images/File
Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is establishing a committee to formally explore a White House bid. "If I run, my candidacy will be based on the idea that the American people are ready to try a dramatically different direction," he said in a news release provided to CNN on Monday, May 18.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
J. Scott Applewhite/AP
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has said the United States needs a "political revolution" of working-class Americans looking to take back control of the government from billionaires. He first announced the run in an email to supporters early on the morning of Thursday, April 30.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images
On March 2, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson announced the launch of an exploratory committee. The move will allow him to raise money that could eventually be transferred to an official presidential campaign and indicates he is on track with stated plans to formally announce a bid in May.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Scott Olson/Getty Images
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham has said he'll make a decision about a presidential run sometime soon. A potential bid could focus on Graham's foreign policy stance.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Sean Gardner/Getty Images
Hillary Clinton launched her presidential bid Sunday, April 12, through a video message on social media. She continues to be considered the overwhelming front-runner among possible 2016 Democratic presidential candidates.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Sen. Marco Rubio announced his bid for the 2016 presidency on Monday, April 13, a day after Hillary Clinton, with a rally in Florida. He's a Republican rising star from Florida who swept into office in 2010 on the back of tea party fervor. But his support of comprehensive immigration reform, which passed the Senate but has stalled in the House, has led some in his party to sour on his prospects.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Lincoln Chafee, a Republican-turned-independent-turned-Democrat former governor and senator of Rhode Island, said he's running for president on Thursday, April 16, as a Democrat, but his spokeswoman said the campaign is still in the presidential exploratory committee stages.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Steve Helber/
Jim Webb, the former Democratic senator from Virginia, is entertaining a 2016 presidential run. In January, he told NPR that his party has not focused on white, working-class voters in past elections.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Vice President Joe Biden has twice before made unsuccessful bids for the Oval Office -- in 1988 and 2008. A former senator known for his foreign policy and national security expertise, Biden made the rounds on the morning shows recently and said he thinks he'd "make a good President."
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Jeff Zelevansky/Getty Images
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has started a series of town halls in New Hampshire to test the presidential waters, becoming more comfortable talking about national issues and staking out positions on hot topic debates.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
Rep. Paul Ryan, a former 2012 vice presidential candidate and fiscally conservative budget hawk, says he's keeping his "options open" for a possible presidential run but is not focused on it.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Sen. Rand Paul officially announced his presidential bid on Tuesday, April 7, at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky. The tea party favorite probably will have to address previous controversies that include comments on civil rights, a plagiarism allegation and his assertion that the top NSA official lied to Congress about surveillance.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Andrew Burton/Getty Images
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz announced his 2016 presidential bid on Monday, March 23, in a speech at Liberty University. The first-term Republican and tea party darling is considered a gifted orator and smart politician. He is best known in the Senate for his marathon filibuster over defunding Obamacare.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Democrat Martin O'Malley, the former Maryland governor, released a "buzzy" political video in November 2013 in tandem with visits to New Hampshire. He also headlined a Democratic Party event in South Carolina, which holds the first Southern primary.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Stewart F. House/Getty Images
Republican Rick Perry, the former Texas governor, announced in 2013 that he would not be seeking re-election, leading to speculation that he might mount a second White House bid.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a social conservative, gave Mitt Romney his toughest challenge in the nomination fight last time out and has made trips recently to early voting states, including Iowa and South Carolina.
Photos: Potential 2016 presidential candidates
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Political observers expect New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to yield to Hillary Clinton's run in 2016, fearing there wouldn't be room in the race for two Democrats from the Empire State.
