New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie might be open to a Republican presidential bid, but he would rather die than serve as a U.S. Senator, the Associated Press reported. Although Christie is thinking about a possible run for the White House in 2016, he won't be making a decision until early next year.
The outspoken Republican would choose to "walk into the Potomac River and drown" instead of serving as a senator from his state, he said during a keynote address at the annual conference of the New Jersey NAACP on Saturday, the first time in five years that he addressed the group as a governor, prompting Richard Smith, the group's New Jersey branch president to call it "a long overdue dialogue between your office and our organization."
Currently, Democrats Cory Booker and Bob Menendez represent New Jersey in the U.S. Senate.
"When I say I'm never running for public office in New Jersey again, I mean: I'm never running for public office in New Jersey again," Christie said, according to CBS News. "The only job left for me to run for is United States Senate, and let me just say this: I would rather die than be in the United States Senate," Christie said, adding emphasis on the words, "I would rather die."
"I would be bored to death," he continued. "Could you imagine me, banging around that chamber with 99 other people, asking for a motion on the amendment in the subcommittee? Forget it. It would be over, everybody. You'd watch me just walk out and walk right into the Potomac River and drown. That would be it."
Near the conclusion of the event, he defended his relationship with the NAACP and laws, such as overhauling the bail system, which he had signed with the group's support, claiming that the association "defied public expectations."
"It's time to put touchdowns in the end zone. We've done a lot of them over the course of the last five years and there's more for us to do. But in the end, I am never running for office in New Jersey again," he said.
Meanwhile, a new Rutgers-Eagleton Poll released Tuesday showed that Christie suffered from a negative favorability rating of 45 percent in his state for the first time in three years.
