Chris Christie 2012: NJ Gov. Announces He Will Not Run for President
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has announced his decision not to run for president in 2012, saying “Now is not my time.”
The announcement came today at 1 p.m. in New Jersey’s capital, Trenton. Christie had been pressured to run for President by dozens of high-level GOP donors and party activists although he had been saying for months that he would not seek the Republican nomination.
The deadline to put in a bid for the presidential candidacy was nearing, and he has now moved to crush any rumors of him standing in 2012.
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Earlier an anonymous Republican source said Christie had already telephoned potential donors to tell them of his decision. The public announcement then followed in the news conference at 1 p.m.
Christie has repeatedly voiced publicly that he will not be running for president. Earlier this year, in an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer, he said “You don’t make a decision to run for president of the United States on impulse. I don’t feel ready in my heart to be president. Unless I do, I don’t have any right offering myself to the people of this country. It’s much too big a job. And so you have to first feel in your heart that you’re ready and that you want it more than anything else.”
Had Christie decided to run, he would have had to organize a huge national campaign and organize a fund-raising network in a very short period of time.
