Christie Says Langone Tried to Get Him to Run for President

July 19 (Bloomberg) -- New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said he met with Kenneth Langone, co-founder of Home Depot Inc., who tried to convince him to run for president.

“I’ve known Ken a long time” and consider him a friend, Christie told reporters today in Trenton. He said the meeting with Langone, a Republican, was “no different from a lot of meetings” he’s had with people urging him to run against President Barack Obama, a Democrat, in 2012. He declined to say who else, if anyone, was at the meeting.

“There are some people who believe that I should leave this job and go for another one,” said Christie, a first-term Republican. “I’m always willing to sit and listen to folks who want to make that argument to me, but I said nothing different to him today than I’ve said to other folks in the past.”

Christie, 48, has become a rising national star in the Republican Party after he cut $10 billion in spending on schools, pensions and local aid in his first budget. He has said repeatedly that has no plans to run for president next year.