Chris Christie faces an uphill battle to regain his former popularity as fewer Americans view him favorably than view him negatively.
In a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll released Tuesday, 29 percent of Americans have a negative view of Christie compared to 22 percent who view him positively. This is reversal from October — before the George Washington Bridge traffic scandal — where 33 percent viewed Christie positively to 17 percent who viewed him negatively.
Christie has lost ground among moderates, Democrats, and Republicans. Moderates have been the largest shift, having gone from 44 percent positive and 13 percent negative in October to 22 percent positive and 29 percent negative today. Among Democrats, Christie’s approval-disapproval was 30 to 17, now it’s 15 to 37.
While Christie faced a drop in favorability among Republicans from 38 percent in October to 32 percent today, the number of Republicans who view him unfavorably has barely changed from 19 percent in October to 20 percent today, well within the poll’s margin of error of 3.46 percent.