Chris Christie is struggling and he’s fallen as a top tier candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, according to a new analysis by Larry Sabato and his University of Virginia Center for Politics, which rates candidates’ strength.
“All indications are that Christie has faltered to some degreee,” the center’s analysts wrote Thursday, and “is no longer in the top tiers of our rankings.”
In fact, he’s now in the third tier, behind eight other possible Republican presidential candidates.
The New Jersey governor has had a series of setbacks. “New Jersey’s economy is struggling and its budget situation is awful,” the analysts found. “If that wasn’t bad enough for Christie, Jeb Bush entered the GOP field in December 2014, imperiling Christie’s position as a high-ranking establishment favorite for the GOP nomination.
“Since then, all indications are that Christie has faltered to some degree, with Bush seizing a great deal of establishment oxygen (and money) and Gov. Scott Walker (Wisconsin) proving a more attractive sitting-governor candidate with appeal to both the establishment and grassroots.”
Also hurting Christie is the rise of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has jumped into the top tier.
“Although Rubio has since earned the wrath of the Tea Party for his foray into immigration reform,” the analysts wrote, “he had strong support from the grassroots in his 2010 Senate win, and like Walker may be capable of winning backing from both establishment and anti-establishment forces in the GOP.”
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