There is recent precedent for that sort of perpetual protest candidacy. In 2016, Bernie Sanders didn’t concede defeat until the Democratic convention in late July, even though by every objective standard Hillary Clinton had clinched the nomination in early June. But it was a very close race that was still contested right up until the final primaries. So perhaps a better analogy for a prospective perma-campaign by Christie would be Ron Paul’s 2012 campaign, which fought for delegates — and threatened to disrupt party harmony — months after Mitt Romney had nailed down the nomination.
The fact that Rust Belt GOPs would vote for a guy who torpedoed a great public works project that would have employed thousands of hard hats is pretty amazing. TARP would have paid for a much needed New York/New Jersey tunnel. Christie nixed it. He didn’t save the US taxpayer any money, the funds went to other states that didn’t have idiots in change