Chris Christie rides New Hampshire back to Republican debate main stage
CNN announced the lineup Sunday for the network’s upcoming Republican presidential debate, with one new addition.
After being demoted in the last debate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will return to primetime Tuesday, hot off a maple-syrupy wave of New Hampshire poll numbers and endorsements.
Christie was relegated from the main event during the GOP’s last debate in November, because he failed to meet the 2.5 percent national polling average requirement.
The demotion seemed to call into question the increasinglyshaky strategy of a campaign pouring all their resources into the nation’s first primary state. Christie had spent the most time in the state of any candidate, with the exception of Lindsey Graham, to no avail in state or national polls.
Then, on November 28, Christie received the endorsement from the New Hampshire Union Leader, the state’s largest newspaper. On November 30, the campaign announced endorsements from two of the state’s most high-profile GOP activists. On December 2, the former Speaker of the New Hampshire House endorsed Christie. And on December 11, current New Hampshire Sente Majority Leader Jeb Bradley backed the New Jersey governor.
Christie has since seen his poll numbers in New Hampshire double, from 6 percent to 12 percent, according to a recent WBUR poll. The two other Granite State polls taken since the Union Leader endorsement show similar bounces — 5 percent to 9 percent, according to CNN, and 3 percent to 9 percent, per Public Policy Polling.
Christie’s national numbers, however, have made no significant movement from the 2 percent to 4 percent range in which they’ve existed in since summer. But CNN’s polling requirements for Tuesday’s debate take into account candidates who are surging in an early state, but not nationally.
To get a primetime podium, candidates had to average at least 3.5 percent in national polls, or at least 4 percent in either Iowa or New Hampshire. Christie makes it due to the latter criteria.
So perhaps the New Jersey’s governor’s New Hampshire strategy is beginning to pay dividends. Or at least, a potential escape from single-digits.
2016 presidential candidates
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