New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie won re-election in a landslide Tuesday night — an overwhelming showing that makes him a leading contender for the Republican nomination for president in 2016.
Christie’s lopsided, 61-38 percent win over Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono is the biggest GOP victory in the Garden State since Gov. Tom Kean captured whopping 71 percent vote in his 1985 re-election bid, the largest gubernatorial victory in state history.
“I know if we can do this in Trenton, New Jersey, maybe the people in Washington, DC, should tune in their TVs and see how it’s done,” Christie said in a boisterous victory speech. “I didn’t seek a second term to do small things. I sought a second term to get things done. Now watch me do it.”
GOP consultant Ed Rollins, an adviser to former President Ronald Reagan, said Christie will be the favorite of the GOP’s establishment wing.
“Christie is the story tonight. He catapults himself to the front of the Republican Party pack for president,” Rollins said. “He’ll be the candidate of Wall Street who has blue-collar appeal.”
The blunt, tough-talking Christie considered but ultimately declined to run for president last year and delivered the keynote speech at the GOP convention that nominated Mitt Romney as the GOP standard-bearer.
Christie has a battle-tested team of campaign advisers who have helped run prior GOP presidential campaigns for other candidates.
Even Democrats said Christie’s crossover appeal makes him a formidable GOP rival in 2016.
“Chris Christie’s victory will have national ramifications,” said Democratic Party national committeeman Robert Zimmerman.
“He built a very strong, impressive coalition that got him re-elected. The question is whether the Republican Party will recognize a candidate like Chris Christie,” said Zimmerman, referring to the GOP’s right-wing base, which opposes immigration reform and forced the government shutdown.
Christie fared considerably better among key voting groups than when he was first elected four years ago, exit polls showed.
His support grew by 8 percentage points among men, 11 points among women, 12 points among blacks and 13 points among Hispanics. Christie split the Hispanic vote with Buono, a demographic that has heavily tilted Democrat in national elections.
He also gained 5 points among college graduates and independents, 14 points among those without college degrees and 12 points with suburbanites and moderate voters.
Exit polls also showed Christie catapulted to re-election despite deep anxiety about the economy — with half of voters citing the issue as their top concern.
Only one in four mentioned taxes.
About one in four voters said they were impacted by Hurricane Sandy and nearly all of those gave Christie positive grades for his response to the deadly storm.
Christie’s easy win came even though he opposes abortion rights, fought gay marriage and is against proposals to increase the minimum wage — all of which many of his constituents support.
During his first term, the GOP governor won major policy victories to rein in costs by tackling special interests. He rammed through new laws to curb government workers’ pensions and health-care benefits in the face of fierce opposition from labor unions, and also battled with the teachers union over evaluations and bringing merit pay to the state-run Newark school district.