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Chris Christie Running for President in 2016: “Telling It Like It Is”

Chris Christie announces his candidacy for president
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, joined by his family, announces his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination on June 30, 2015

It's official! Republican Chris Christie officially announced on Tuesday, June 30, that he's throwing his hat in the ring for the 2016 presidential election. The New Jersey Gov. returned to his alma mater, Livingston High School in Livingston, New Jersey, to kick off his campaign.

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Hours before his big reveal, Christie, 52, urged Twitter followers to watch his announcement live on his website, which included a telling message.

"I get accused a lot of times of being too blunt and too direct, and saying what's on my mind a little too loudly," he said in a video, taped from a previous town hall tour stop. "I have an Irish father and I had a Sicilian mother. Now for those of you hooting, you know what that means, right?"

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Christie went on to explain that it was his mother, Sondra Christie, who taught him to speak his mind. When she was diagnosed with cancer in 2004, she pointed out that because of this rule, she and Christie had nothing unsaid between them.

"It was an incredibly powerful moment in my life," Christie explained. "When people wonder why I do the things I do — that moment affirmed for me forever that I am going to be this way. I know that if my mother was still alive today, she would tell me, 'I taught you that in a trusting relationship you don't hold anything back. And if you are going to run for President of the United States, and you are going to ask these people for their vote, that is the single most trusting thing they can do as a citizen is to give you their support. So you better tell them exactly how you're feeling and exactly what you're thinking.'"

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Christie, whose motto appears to be "Telling It Like It Is," will be going up against Donald Trump, former Florida governor Jeb Bush, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Rand Paul, among others for the GOP ticket. Democrats vying for the White House include New York Senator and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, and former Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee

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