NEW LONDON – Chris Christie recounted a story he’s probably told hundreds of times before.

It was 2015, the second Republican primary debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, CA. None of the candidates would talk to Donald Trump, except Christie, then the governor of New Jersey.

As Christie tells it, Trump approached him at one point that evening.

“Chris, look: I’m not going to win. I’m not staying in this race. Eventually, I’m going to go down, and when I do, I’m going to get out,” Trump told him. “And you’re the only one here who’s nice to me, so I’m going to be with you.”

Christie shared the anecdote during his town hall at Colby-Sawyer College in New London on Tuesday night, not in a boastful way, but rather to remind prospective New Hampshire primary voters in attendance of their power to influence who gets the nomination. Of course, during the 2016 campaign, Trump finished second in the Iowa Caucus, before placing first in New Hampshire. He proceeded to win South Carolina and Nevada en route to securing the nomination.

2024 could be an opportunity for another unexpected candidate to follow a similar path, Christie posited.

“I absolutely believe that if you come here enough and you answer questions directly and you’re honest with people and you tell the truth, that ultimately they’ll respond to me,” he said to a packed room on Tuesday. “Let me tell you who’s going to decide if I’m right or I’m wrong: You are. And I will tell you that if Donald Trump loses in New Hampshire in late January or early February of 2024, he’s finished. You in this state will be able to make that determination for the Republican Party.”

The latest polls in New Hampshire have suggested what they’ve suggested all along — that it will be a tall order for someone other than Trump to win the Republican nomination. In a New Hampshire Journal poll released earlier this week, Christie was tied with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for second place at 9%. Trump stood at 43%.

But Christie’s the only candidate in the top six of that poll who’s shown any willingness to take on Trump directly, and he didn’t waste much time in Tuesday’s town hall laying out his case.

Christie had just returned from a long journey to Ukraine to meet with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, and he detailed the atrocities he saw and heard about resulting from the war provoked by Russia. After laying out the immense scope of death and destruction, he pointed to Trump’s repeated claim that he could resolve the war in Ukraine in 24 hours.

“Now, let me remind you of something,” Christie said. “This is the same guy who said if he became president, he would build a big, beautiful wall on the entire border between the U.S. and Mexico, and Mexico would pay for it. Well, in four years, he built 52 miles. 52 miles of wall in four years. So let’s stop there. If he goes at the same pace if he’s reelected, he only needs 110 more years as president to finish the entire wall. And, we haven’t gotten the first peso from Mexico.”

The actual number that Christie was likely citing is closer to 73 miles – a border wall that was constructed during Trump’s presidency where no wall or fencing previously existed. But when talking about a U.S.-Mexico border that spans nearly 2,000 miles, that difference doesn’t change Christie’s underlying argument that what Trump says he would do and what he actually did were often different.

Throughout the nearly two-hour event, Christie highlighted the need for the country to be able to discuss big issues again, from addressing the fact that reading proficiency levels in the United States lag behind other major countries, to the Social Security fund being “exhausted” by 2037, according to the Social Security Administration.

“Yet, we have people talking about Bud Light and Disney,” Christie said, citing favorite culture war topics among some of his opponents. “Now look, my wife and I are not fans of Disney World. We’ve gone there with our kids. For us, it is a nightmare. But here’s the thing: Is that really going to change your life markedly, if Disney is now going to be punished because they opposed a bill that Governor DeSantis was for? Man, if I took vengeance against every group that opposed a bill I was for in eight years as governor of blue New Jersey, I still wouldn’t be caught up five years after I left office.”

John Straniero, a Republican from New London in attendance at the town hall, had an idea of what to expect from Christie. He lived in New Jersey his whole life, until he moved up to New Hampshire in 2015, and said he appreciates the former governor’s tendency to “call it like he sees it.”

Straniero voted for Trump both in 2016 and 2020 but won’t do so again in the 2024 primary. He’s still unsure who he’ll support, but what he saw on January 6, 2021, when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol was just too much for him to back Trump again.

“I lived for 50 years in North Jersey,” he said. “I’ve known Trump and his shenanigans for 50 years. But I think January 6 did it for a lot of people like myself. I don’t know if it was a crime, but it was just a terrible decision that was made. Someone as president of the United States should not have the short-sightedness not to have noticed what a disaster that could’ve been and of course what it turned out to be.”

The dilemma facing Straniero, though, will be what to do if Trump secures the nomination for a third straight cycle – the likely outcome. It’s the question he wanted to ask Christie if he had the chance.

“I think there are many Republicans like me that don’t understand: If neither candidate can win without the independent vote, why are so many Republicans backing Trump who isn’t going to get the inde pendent vote?” Straniero said. “You’re backing someone destined to lose. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”

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