Chris Christie is easing into a 2024 campaign for the presidency — as allies of the former New Jersey governor prepare to launch a super PAC to back him in the Republican primary.
Longtime Christie adviser and Republican National Committee member Bill Palatucci, as well as former Mitt Romney campaign aide Brian Jones, told The Post on Tuesday that they expect to start the super PAC, Tell It Like It Is, within the next two weeks.
Palatucci will serve as chairman, and Jones, who also advised John McCain for his 2008 presidential campaign, will run the group.
Fellow Christie adviser Russ Schriefer will also join in, along with data expert Brent Seaborn.
Maria Comella, a former adviser to ex-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and Christie strategist Mike DuHaime are expected to run Christie’s campaign.
In a statement, Jones said Christie is “willing to confront the hard truths that currently threaten the future of the Republican Party.”
Christie, a two-term governor, broke with former President Donald Trump over Trump’s stolen-election claims in 2020 but had once been a close ally.
The former New Jersey governor, 60, ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016 but dropped out of the race after coming in sixth place in the New Hampshire primary before turning around to endorse Trump.
The former governor has criticized the 76-year-old ex-president in recent interviews, saying a Trump nomination next year would be “bad for the Republican Party” and would allow President Biden to prevail in the general election.
Christie has also accused Trump of being “afraid” to participate in any Republican primary debates because it would force the former president to “get on the stage against people who are serious.”
He has similarly attacked Ron DeSantis, who launched his presidential campaign last week, saying the 44-year-old Florida governor “doesn’t have the temperament and the judgment to be resident of the United States” and calling his ongoing legal battle with Disney “not conservative.”
Christie would join a crowded field of other GOP candidates if he enters the presidential race, including: former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who also served as UN Ambassador under Trump; Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC); former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson; entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy; radio host Larry Elder and businessmen Perry Johnson and Ryan Binkley.
Trump is currently leading the field by a 30-point margin, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, who also broke with the ex-commander-in-chief over the results of the 2020 election, has yet to announce his widely expected 2024 run.
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu also said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday that he will announce whether he plans to run “in the next week or two.”
New York Mets owner Steve Cohen will likely provide “financial backing” to Christie’s campaign after having spent millions to support him for the presidency in 2016, a report has said.
Anthony Scaramucci, who briefly served as Trump’s communications director, has said he also will support Christie’s campaign.
Polls show Biden, who announced his re-election campaign last month, has a majority of support from Democratic voters in his bid for the party’s nomination but is facing insurgent campaigns from activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and spiritual guru Marianne Williamson.