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Chris Christie Formally Enters 2016 Presidential Race as Underdog

Hundreds of protesters set up camp outside the the high school where the incumbent New Jersey governor made his announcement.
Photo by Julio Cortez/AP

On the day Governor Chris Christie formally declared his run for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, New Jerseyans are proving that not everyone loves an underdog.

Hundreds of protesters set up camp outside Livingston High School Tuesday — Christie's alma mater — ahead of his planned announcement, wielding signs that read "liar" and "No to Christie" as some called for teacher's pensions and chanted "Hey, hey. Ho, Ho. Christie for president? Hell no!"

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Inside the school's gym, shortly after 11am, Christie warmed the cheering crowd with a tribute to his former stomping ground, telling supporters there is no other place he would have made his announcement speech.

"Everything started here for me," he said. "The confidence, the education, the friends, the family, and the love that I've always felt for and from this community… Livingston is home for me."

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Hundreds protest.— Tim Darragh (@timdarragh)June 30, 2015

Christie went on to speak about his family and their efforts to achieve the American dream before moving onto the dysfunction in Washington, DC and political parties that "have failed our country" through failure to compromise.

"America is tired of hand-wringing and indecisiveness and weakness in the Oval Office," he said. "We need to have strength and decision-making and authority back in the Oval Office. And that is why today I am proud to announce my candidacy for the Republican nomination for president of the United States of America."

The incumbent New Jersey governor's drooping approval ratings — at just 30 percent in his home state — confirm he also has his work cut out for him as he enters a contest already chock-full of Republican heavyweights. Perhaps it's Christie's pugilistic personality that has divided voters. His defensiveness at town halls and pressers have often translated into tongue lashing tactics, many of which — preserved forever in the annals of political YouTube blunders — will undoubtedly return to haunt him as the race to the White House accelerates.

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Christie, 52, has admitted he's guilty at times of being "too blunt" and "too direct," which he attributes in part to growing up in a fiery household with an Irish father and Sicilian mother. But even as local voters shun him for his "bully tactics," Christie simply maintains he's just "telling it like it is" — which has since become his official campaign slogan.

"I mean what I say and I say what I mean, and that's what America needs right now," he told the crowd Tuesday.

But Christie wasn't always so unpopular at home. After Hurricane Sandy pummeled New Jersey in October 2012, costing billions in damage to the state's businesses and homes, polls put Christie's approval ratings at 77 percent, and he swept back into the governor's mansion in a 2013 electoral landslide.

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Diane Beeny, from Westfield, joins others who are opposed to Gov. Chris Christie running for President.— Robert Sciarrino (@SciarrinoRobert)June 30, 2015

Since then, some of his political supporters have abandoned him — many over the so-called "Bridgegate" scandal, which transpired under his governorship. While Christie was never directly implicated, three of his former allies have been charged over the incident. One of those people, David Wildstein — the former Port Authority executive who has pleaded guilty to conspiring to create traffic jams in Fort Lee, New Jersey near the George Washington Bridge in September 2013 as a form of political retaliation — is a former schoolmate of Christie's from Livingston High School.

Christie's record of nine credit downgrades since taking office in 2010, also hasn't inspired confidence in voters. On Tuesday, he blamed those woes in part on inheriting a flailing state economy in massive debt, but over the last six years he said his administration has "led it to a better day."

But today, Christie says he's ready to lead the country and is "ready to fight for the people of the United States of America" — even if that means telling them what they don't want to hear.

"You're going to get what I think, whether you like it or not, whether it makes you cringe every once in a while or not," he said.

Follow Liz Fields on Twitter: @lianzifields