Donald Trump has seemingly found someone new to pick on: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.
The billionaire real estate mogul and Republican presidential front-runner took a small dig at his 2016 competitor on Thursday, tweeting out links to recent articles about a new poll showing that the majority of New Jersey voters want their own governor to end his White House bid.
“A great day in New Jersey for Trump!” he wrote, above a photo of a smiling Christie. Up until now, Trump has largely refrained from criticizing the governor, choosing instead to go after his other GOP rivals, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Marco Rubio of Florida, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and ex-Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina.
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The Rutgers-Eagleton survey Trump pointed to showed that the majority of Garden State voters—67%–believe Christie should pull the plug on his campaign, while just 27% want to see him run. Meanwhile, Trump was the top pick among New Jersey GOPers with 32% support, an 11 point increase since August.
Although Trump is in the lead in New Jersey, 55% of voters said they had an unfavorable impression of the reality host.
Still, just 5% of Republican and GOP-leaning voters said Christie was their first choice candidate while several others polled ahead of Christie in his home state. That includes 6% support for Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, 13% for Rubio of Florida, and 13% retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson. “Other Republican candidates have been led by Trump in their home states’ polls, but virtually all still come in second or third” said Ashley Koning, assistant director of the Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling at Rutgers University. “Christie no longer has any home state advantage.” Christie’s campaign did not immediately return a request for comment. The governor is currently in the early voting state of New Hampshire. The survey of 935 adults was conducted between Oct. 3 and Oct. 10 and had a margin of error of 3.2 points. The margin of error among the 273 Republican voters polled was 6.6 points.Recommended
