A recent University of New Hampshire poll reports that among prospective New Hampshire Republican voters in the 2024 Republican presidential primary, Chris Christie has a negative net favorability percentage of 44 percent. This makes it abundantly clear that he has zero chance of winning the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

It is one matter for Chris Christie to have a percentage as low as one percent of Republicans in various polls for their most preferred presidential candidate.  That can be overcome.  He cannot under any circumstances, however, overcome a huge unfavorable rating among Republican voters.

There is a fantasy among pro-Christie Republicans of his eviscerating both MAGA favorites, former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee in August.  Christie is fully capable of doing that.  This would only inflame even more, however, the MAGA hatred of Christie and harden their rejection of him.

I regard Christie’s present high unfavorable rating among GOP voters as a badge of honor he can proudly display.  Today’s Republican Party has experienced a hostile takeover by the forces of MAGA.

The GOP has been ravaged by the MAGA philistine cancers of racism, bigotry, xenophobia, anti-science illiteracy, and anti-intellectualism. These malignancies have now metastasized in the GOP body politic, endangering the prospects of success of any 2024 GOP presidential nominee.

Republican Chris Christie, a conservative Republican in the center-right mode has not been infested by any of these cancers.  His rejection by MAGA is precisely due to his immunity to these malignancies.

While it is a certainty that Christie cannot win the GOP presidential nomination, he does have the opportunity to run for the White House as a center- right independent.  And as I wrote weeks ago, there are circumstances under which such a candidacy could attain an increased measure of viability.

Furthermore, there have been the following developments since then regarding both major party frontrunners, Trump and President Joe Biden, that could stimulate grass roots receptivity to an independent presidential candidacy.

I have written at length about the disabling effect of Donald Trump’s legal situation on his general election viability.    A recent Wall Street Journal Poll shows that DeSantis leads Biden 48 to 45 percent while Biden leads Trump by three points.  A growing number of Republican US Senators are now publicly and privately expressing misgivings on how an indicted Trump at the top of the ticket could give the entire GOP a “bad look” in the 2024 general election.

The continued mass shootings and the Texas US District Court decision on medicated abortion have further alienated millions of voters from the Republican Party.  This alienation is reflected in recent polls demonstrating overwhelming voter rejection of the Republican record and position on guns and abortion.

Yet the Democrats may also have public perception difficulties of their own.  There is a potential scandal on the horizon for Joe Biden regarding the IRS investigation of the business affairs of Hunter Biden, as described in a recent Wall Street Journal article.  And a recession is expected by the Federal Reserve by the year’s end, further clouding Biden’s reelection prospects.

Yet perhaps the most determinative evidence regarding the electorate receptivity towards an independent candidate is contained in the NBC News poll released yesterday.  Seventy percent of the electorate does not think that Biden should run for reelection, and sixty percent does not think Trump should run.

In a nutshell, the prospects for a successful independent presidential candidacy may be better in 2024 than in any election over the past 75 years. That gives Chris Christie reason to seriously consider such an endeavor.

If Christie decides to embark on a center-right independent candidacy, there is a positive measure he should take that if successful would, more than anything else, increase his chances of general election success.  Specifically, he should offer the position of his vice presidential running mate to Republican Congresswoman Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

There is a remarkable synchronicity in the policy positions of Christie and Mace.  Like Christie, Nancy Mace is both pro-life and pro-Second Amendment.  Yet in recent weeks, she has attained political media stardom with her criticism of the GOP obtuseness in failing to attempt to find any common ground with the majority of the electorate on these issues.

A Chris Christie-Nancy Mace independent ticket could generate both major media acceptance and interest among Gen-Z, millennial, and women voters who are currently rejecting the GOP.  Indeed, the possibility of running with Nancy Mace could be the factor that most encourages Chris Christie to make an independent run for 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in 2024.

Alan J. Steinberg served as regional administrator of Region 2 EPA during the administration of former President George W. Bush and as executive director of the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission.