Chris Christie’s political operation is aggressively trying to persuade New Hampshire Democrats to switch parties to vote for the former New Jersey governor in the state’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary.
Two organizations aligned with Christie — who is centering his campaign around his outspoken opposition to former President Donald Trump — have launched advertising campaigns targeting Democratic voters. Those efforts come just days ahead of the state’s Oct. 6 deadline to switch party registration.
The pro-Christie Tell It Like It Is super PAC is sending mailers to registered Democratic voters ahead of that deadline, urging them to switch affiliations. The mailer tries to woo Democrats by telling them they can help “make sure” Trump “never sees the inside of the Oval Office again.”
“This can’t happen again,” the mailer says, against a background photo showing rioters storming the Capitol on Jan. 6. “You can make sure it doesn’t. Stop Trump by switching parties & voting in the Republican primary.”
In an effort to assuage concerns, the mailer tells voters that “it’s easy to switch your party affiliation back after” next year’s primary.
Another pro-Christie group, an under-the-radar nonprofit policy organization called American Leadership Today, has begun running a digital ad in New Hampshire educating voters on how they can switch their party affiliation.
“In New Hampshire on a cold January night, democracy will be on the ballot,” the commercial says. “Will we continue to uphold our constitution?”
American Leadership Today has also been sending out text messages and direct mail to New Hampshire Democrats. Like its TV ad, the organization’s mailer tells voters how to switch their party registration and also notes that unaffiliated voters can cast ballots in a primary.
“Exercise your right to vote,” the mailer says. “You can protect our democracy.”
Collectively, the efforts by both groups underscores the degree to which Christie has hitched his political future to anxiety over the prospect of a second Trump presidency. The former governor has run predominantly on his willingness to call out the former president, who he once supported. He has aggressively attacked the Republican frontrunner for, among other things, his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol siege and for refusing to participate in the primary debates.
And he has campaigned largely in New Hampshire, hoping that his opposition to Trump will resonate with independent-minded voters who factor prominently in the state. His popularity with Democrats in New Hampshire has soared.
An American Leadership Today spokesperson said the organization’s “goal [was] spreading awareness about available choices through a multi-faceted campaign and expanding voter participation in the Granite State’s proud First In The Nation primary process.”
While pro-Christie groups are now trying to build a voting base around an anti-Trump candidacy that extends well beyond the GOP primary electorate, Christie himself has stopped short of explicitly encouraging Democrats to switch parties for him. He said in a Sept. 19 town hallin North Hampton, N.H. that he was “uncomfortable with the idea of asking people to change their party. Because I think that's something that's very personal for them to decide.”
But, he added, “whoever is eligible to vote …and wants to vote, should go out and vote and vote for the person that they think will make a difference."
Steven Cheung, a Trump campaign spokesperson, dismissed the pro-Christie super PAC’s gambit.
“Of course Chris Christie is begging Democrats to support him. Chris Christie is a stone cold loser who spends every day on the cable news casting couch auditioning for a contributor contract whenever his joke of a campaign ends up in flames,” Cheung said.
Adam Sexton, a reporter for the New Hampshire TV station WMUR, first reportedon the Tell It Like It Is mailer.
Recent polls have shown Trump with a commanding lead in the state, with Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley trailing.
Christie, who parted ways with the former president after he left the White House, similarly focused on New Hampshire during his short-lived 2016 presidential campaign. The former governor has said he would “leave” the contest if he doesn’t perform well in the state’s primary.
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