Presidential candidate Chris Christie speaks to supporters at Elks Lodge No. 720 in Nashua on Nov. 20. Courtesy photo

NASHUA – With his wife Mary Pat home in Mendham, N.J. preparing Thanksgiving Dinner for 25 guests, presidential candidate Chris Christie spoke to Nashua supporters about why America’s chief executive must be willing to reach across party lines for the common good.

Christie said that after winning the 2009 gubernatorial election, he traveled two-and-a-half hours to meet with Democratic State Sen. Stephen Sweeney. At the time, Sweeney was president of the New Jersey Senate and was a general organizer for Ironworkers Local 399.

Christie told Sweeney that they needed to work together to “put touchdowns in the end zone.”

“It was our code for each other right from the very beginning,” Christie said during his Nov. 20 town hall at Elks Lodge No. 720. “That’s where we need to get to in Washington D.C. You look at Washington, these jokers take a victory lap for not closing the government. We’ve got big problems in this country and around the world. We need someone who is seriously willing to put their political capital on the line.”

After taking the helm as the Garden State’s 55th governor, Christie found that his predecessor, Jonathan Corzine, left office with New Jersey facing an $11 billion deficit on a $29 billion budget.

Christie said he responded with a zero-based budgeting model in an effort to curb state expenditures.

“I made every department come in and start at zero and justify every program they had,” he said.

In doing so, Christie eliminated 832 state programs in one year. That action also caused his approval rating to plummet from 55 percent to 38 percent.

“Every one of those programs had a constituency,” he said.

However, Christie maintained that he always put New Jersey ahead of being elected to a second term.

“Our job is to work for you, not the other way around,” he said.

Christie said he never thought he would run for president again after low polling numbers compelled him to drop out of the 2016 race.

“But when I saw what was happening in our party and in our country, I could not stand on the sidelines,” he said.

As of Nov. 20, the national poll from Emerson College showed Christie with three percent of the vote in the Republican primary. This puts him in fifth place behind entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy who has five percent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis who has eight percent, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley who has nine percent and former President Donald Trump who remains in front with 64 percent.

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