Chris Christie's presidential campaign has Del. roots

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's journey to GOP presidential candidate runs right through the University of Delaware campus.

Christie, 52, who launched his long-anticipated presidential campaign Tuesday, is a 1984 graduate of Delaware, where as student body president he became known for a fiery approach and blunt talk –characteristics he still carries today.

"Things that he thought were right or wrong, he would not let go," said classmate and friend Leighton Lord, a South Carolina attorney and Christie fundraiser.

Back then, the future Republican governor was known as a Reagan-conservative, but championed causes not always right-of-center, such as lower tuition and a more powerful student radio station. He was a political science major – the same as another famous Delaware alumnus, Vice President Joe Biden, class of 1965.

Mark Miller, the Emma Smith Morris professor of political science at the University of Delaware, remembers Christie's strong opinions in his American Foreign Policy class. During discussions about the Cold War and Vietnam War, Christie sat with the conservative circle of students, both literally and figuratively, but debated respectfully, Miller said.

"There were quite divergent perspectives (in the class), but the course was set up as a dialogue," Miller said.

Christie went on to get a law degree from Seton Hall University, then joined a law firm before becoming a U.S. attorney for New Jersey under President George W. Bush in 2002. He was elected governor in November 2009.

The announcement Tuesday came at a campaign kickoff rally in the gymnasium of his former high school in Livingston, New Jersey, where he also was class president. Christie joins a crowded field of more than a dozen candidates bidding for the GOP nomination, and there is speculation Biden may enter the race as well.

Christie used the speech to push back against the Obama administration.

"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 campaign comes 32 years after Christie won the university student government presidency in a landside and appointed Lord to be student representative on the school Board of Trustees.

Looking back, Lord said he initially thought the non-voting position would simply be an opportunity to rub shoulders with people of influence. But Christie had specific directions. One was to increase the broadcasting power of the university radio station. When the board was slow to act on the request, Christie told Lord to take direct action.

"He made me make a protest statement each meeting," Lord said. "He took student government more seriously than anyone else."

Although Christie dug into wonkish student policies such as radio broadcast power, he also knew how to appeal to a student electorate. Christie organized a raffle for students as a way to fulfill a campaign promise to stem rising tuition costs. The winning ticket would get free tuition for a semester.

College tuition became something of a pre-campaign issue for Christie, who earlier this month criticized a proposal by Democratic presidential nominee U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, of Vermont, to make public university tuition free nationwide.

"It is wrong," Christie said in a speech at Iowa State University. "If college graduates are going to reap the greater economic rewards and opportunities of earning a degree, then it seems fair for them to support the cost of the education."

Christie's campaign office did not respond to a request to comment for this story.

Overall, Christie's political ideology has stayed fairly constant, Lord said. As a political science major, Christie would engage in debates with professors and with left-leaning students.

"Chris was definitely in that Republican camp," Lord said. "He was a big Reagan supporter."

Miller said that although he holds more politically-liberal views than Christie, he's maintained a very cordial relationship with the New Jersey governor since his time in Newark. Miller also appreciates that Christie regularly supports his alma mater by showing up at Blue Hen football games.

"I've always been very impressed by his devotion to the university," Miller said.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.