Christie’s big win with women built on personality, not policy

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) achieved the improbable Tuesday night: a win with female voters, by double digits, up against a female candidate. 

{mosads}The secret, observers and staffers say, lies in Christie’s personal appeal and vision for New Jersey. They say his tell-it-like-it-is, no-nonsense personal style, and ability to empathize with voters, helped win him women looking for a new kind of politician.

“This election was really about Christie’s personality and leadership style on the issues themselves. New Jersey voters largely supported [Democrat] Barbara Buono on the issues,” said Ben Dworkin, professor of political science at Rider University.

Republicans emerged from the 2012 election suffering gender gaps across the board, with GOP nominee Mitt Romney losing women by 10 points. The trouble with women prompted the Republican National Committee to urge the GOP to focus particularly on outreach to that demographic group in a post-mortem report.

That’s why Christie’s win with women was so astounding — and why it makes him an attractive candidate for 2016, when he could face the first female Democratic presidential nominee in former secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

And Christie achieved the win without the traditional outreach to women voters that other Republican candidates often engage in, like creating a women’s coalition — as Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has done — or sitting down with local women’s groups.

Christie adviser Mike DuHaime noted that “it feels very forced” for some campaigns to operate like that and that the governor instead focused on issues to appeal to as wide a swath of voters as possible in the deep-blue state.

“That doesn’t always make sense. [Those groups are] always filled with die-hard Republican women. So for us, it was more about policy-based groups and issue-based groups. Some of the supporters happened to be women, some happened to be men,” he said.

Some of the issues Christie focused on during his campaign, DuHaime points out, were precisely those that resonate with women. He emphasized investments in education — and even cut an ad with Shaquille O’Neil declaring he’s provided more funding for schools — and his efforts to boost New Jersey’s economy.

While Democrats would dispute both those claims, Democratic attacks never managed to pick up much traction, in part because their messenger never did.

“While she was a woman herself, she never really connected,” Dworkin said 

And Christie’s focus on those issues, coupled with the afterglow of Hurricane Sandy that never quite wore off, helped him avoid discussions about his opposition to abortion rights or the steps he took to defund family planning services in the state.

More important than the issues that appealed to women, however, was the candidate himself. Republican Pollster and New Jersey native Kellyanne Conway said women gravitated toward him because he’s capable of engaging on an emotional level.

“He’s got this very compelling and unique combination for politicians, of sort of, tough guy meets teddy bear,” she said.

“He’s empathized; he’s emoted; he’s hugged people — he’s literally felt their pain, but then he’s been tough, passionate and unrelenting in following through on his promises and doing what he thinks is right.”

In August, at an event in Las Vegas, he revealed to an audience that the “lowest time” in his life was when he found out his mom was dying — an admission that made headlines across the nation that day.

A year after Hurricane Sandy devastated the Jersey shore, Christie expressed his love for the state in a heartfelt speech to a gathering of supporters punctuated by the declaration: “These are my people!”

He’s been known to distribute hugs and backslaps on the campaign trail as often as he’s been known to launch into fiery, finger-pointing outbursts at hecklers.

New Jersey, supporters and observers say, loves it.

“For us it was more about connecting with people on a bigger level. It was much more about Christie as a leader, Christie as an individual, Christie as a guy that’s moving the state in the right direction,” DuHaime said.

Women in particular appreciate his authenticity, Conway said, which lends itself to an everyman appeal.

“I like him, but more importantly, he’s like me,” she said. “Everybody has a Chris Christie in their life. They’ve gone to college with him; they’ve dated him; they’ve tailgated a football game with him. The reason that people are attracted to him politically is that they can identify with him socially and culturally.”

Conway likened it to the legendary appeal of former President Clinton, who transcended political allegiances and demographic prejudices in a way no Democrat has managed to match since.

Of Hillary Clinton, Conway said that she sees “Bill Clinton more in Chris Christie than in her. She needs more Clinton and less Hillary.”

But Democrats believe Hillary Clinton, for whatever political gifts she might lack, would have a better shot hitting Christie on the issues than Buono did. 

“Gov. Christie is never going to be in another campaign where he’s going up against a candidate that’s as underfunded and outspent on television as we were,” said David Turner, former spokesman for Buono.

EMILY’s List, which endorsed Buono, did try to make Christie’s positions on women’s issues a problem for him but admitted it was difficult to make them stick considering his personality.

But EMILY’s List spokeswoman Marcy Stech warned that, if he does run for president in 2016, he won’t get a free pass on women’s issues, as he’ll likely be up against a tough female candidate with endless funds to support her attacks 

“Once Chris Christie’s policy positions get a full airing, it won’t take much for women to see that he’s just as extreme as Ken Cuccinelli — but Christie is just better at hiding it,” she said, referencing the losing Virginia gubernatorial nominee, who suffered a striking deficit with women on Tuesday night.

Democrats also believe Christie’s blunt personality could be a problem with female voters in other states. They point to an incident that happened late in the campaign where Christie was filmed jabbing his finger in the face of a female teacher during an argument at a rally, which they believe would run well in attack ads.

But that bluntness, Dworkin said, might be just what America’s looking for.

“I think his personality will translate well because he’s so different. You’ve gotta think that Chris Christie is akin to the Beatles, when they first showed up in America. He doesn’t look like or sound like anybody else. That makes him intriguing, engaging, different,” he said.

“People believe that that change from the cardboard cutout politician types can make a difference,” he added.