BROOKLINE, N.H. — Mary Pat Christie, the wife of New Jersey governor and Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, arrived in the Granite State Tuesday eager to speak to a crowd that ended up being hard-of-hearing and hard on her.
“This is ridiculous for anyone to come for this,” Helene Rogerson, a sassy 94-year-old, leaned over and told a friend inside the dining room of the Rockingham County Nursing Home.
“I should have brought my tablet, I would have had more fun,” Rogerson added, pestering an attendant for Christie’s arrival time.
“I wonder if she’s as loud as her husband,” shouted another elderly woman, who was seated at a table with a half-dozen other wheelchair-bound folks.
Before Christie had even entered the outdated dining area, the 20 or so individuals who’d come to hear her speak — some of whom were drawn out of their rooms by nurses wanting to avoid an embarrassingly low turnout — were already expressing their indifference.
“I don’t think too many of us are interested in politics, you know?” one woman whispered to her neighbor.
“Don’t they think we have things to do?” the woman next to her responded.
But as soon as Christie arrived, ears perked and those who could, sat straight up in their chairs.
“I left my full-time job in April,” the first lady of New Jersey told the audience. “I used to work in New York City, trading bonds for a living, but I’m happy to be doing this instead.”
By “this,” Christie meant hitting the campaign trail, which she sometimes does solo, but mostly appears by her husband’s side. Tuesday marked Christie’s 127th stop in New Hampshire since she began working as a surrogate.
“There are a couple things my husband wants me to highlight that he thinks are very important,” she continued, hitting on entitlement reform and national security — two issues the New Jersey governor has made central to his presidential campaign.
“How does he feel about the Mexican border?” one woman asked Christie toward the end of her speech.
“He certainly thinks a wall or fence in some places along the border is a good idea, and he also feels strongly that we should be using something called e-verify,” she said, taking time to explain the employee verification program.
Christie only declined to answer one question which came from a voter seeking more information about her husband’s tempestuous relationship with Republican front-runner Donald Trump.
“You’d have to ask him that,” she responded. “If you come to a town hall, he’ll give you a much better answer.”
“I think she’s a lovely lady,” said Miriam Kent, a native New Yorker, who’d listened intently to Christie’s remarks.
“I’m a fan, but I’m not telling you who I’m voting for,” she added, waving her index finger back-and-forth.
For Christie, talking to voters is something she considers necessary to her husband’s success.
“This is how it’s won and how it’s done,” she told the Washington Examiner.
She continued, “I think it’s important because they learn a lot about the candidate and it gives people this feeling that they’re touch the candidate. Chris might not get a chance to come to this assisted living facility, but I could.”
“It just allows us to cover more territory and I know he appreciates that,” Christie said.
