WASHINGTON (Sputnik), Thomas Zimmer — US Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie does not have any popular support for his campaign, experts told Sputnik.
“[Christie] has high negative ratings among Republican voters nationally and is quite unpopular in his home state due to a combination of economic problems and the ongoing ‘Bridgegate’ scandal,” Emory University Political Science Professor Alan Abramowitz said.
Abramowitz argued that Christie’s first challenge will be to qualify among the ten most popular Republican candidates in national polls so that he can participate for the upcoming Fox News debate.
If Christie fails to do that, his campaign will probably end quickly, the analyst said.
Next, the New Jersey governor will have to overcome widespread suspicions about his views among conservative voters. He will also have to compete with other moderates with higher standings in the polls like former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and US Senator Marco Rubio.
“He does not have a clear base of support in the Republican Party,” Kraynak said.
Christie tried to present himself as a “straight-talking Jersey boy” who can make government accountable and work with other politicians to get results, but so far this pitch has not impressed the US Republican voting base, Kraynak maintained.
“His walk along the beach with President Obama after Hurricane Sandy may have endorsed him to Jersey citizens who want solutions, not partisan bickering, but it does not sell well in a Republican primary,” Kraynak said.
Kraynak concluded that Christie was unlikely to receive more than 15 percent of votes in any Republican primary, despite the great effort he has already made in trying to appeal to voters in New Hampshire, the first full state primary in 2016.
However, Christie’s brash attitude and unscripted comments and insight might still give him some appeal, Colgate University Associate Political Science Professor Nina Moore told Sputnik.
“He does not talk, act or, for that matter, look like the typical, perfectly packaged presidential candidate,” she said. “This could prove to be an advantage for him.”
However, Moore agreed with other analysts that other candidates running for the Republican nomination were likely to prove more popular than Christie because they appealed to a wider audience outside the Republican Party.
