SALEM, N.H. — Chris Christie is running away with support from at least one major voting bloc in his presidential bid.

The only problem is it’s among the least important groups in the Republican primary.

The former New Jersey governor has seen his popularity soar with Democrats. Whereas Democrats once considered him a bully, a threat and an opportunistic apologist for Donald Trump, they now can’t get enough of his new Trump-bashing persona.

“He’s probably the only Republican I would vote for,” said Joe Daly, a Democrat from Warner, N.H., who voted for Biden in 2020 but isn’t sold on a second term. Of those on the right, Christie is “the most reasonable, rational alternative to crazy Donald Trump.”

Christie’s crossover success in New Jersey politics — and what made him a national star circa 2012 — was largely based on his ability to work with Democrats to notch significant policy victories. He aggressively courted Democrats along the way to his reelection in 2013, so much so that his top aides choked access to the George Washington Bridge — the world’s busiest — to punish a local Democratic mayor for not backing Christie (he was not found to have any involvement).

But a decade later, it’s Democrats who are among the biggest boosters of Christie’s presidential bid.

A July New York Times and Siena College poll found 14 percent of Democrats would be most likely to vote for Christie as the Republican nominee — support that soared to 24 percent with Democratic “leaners” included. That’s higher than Christie’s polled in any survey of likely GOP primary voters since he entered the race in June.

And Christie ranked third-highest among Democrats following the first Republican presidential debate, with 12 percent who watched it saying he won, according to a New York Post poll. The same survey said Democrats preferred Christie to be the Republican nominee behind Liz Cheney, the former Wyoming representative who isn’t running for president.

The dyed-in-the-wool Republican who once called Barack Obama a “feckless weakling” while running for the 2016 presidential nomination is now courting any voters who will listen in his redux bid. He went on a podcast hosted by former Obama aides and another co-hosted by veteran Democratic strategist James Carville. Former MSNBC host Chris Matthews deemed Christie “the liberal pinup boy right now” and New York Times columnist Michelle Goldberg wrote how “amusing” it is to watch Christie rip former President Donald Trump while other candidates pledge to support him if he again wins the nomination.

Even Christie’s campaign-trail pitch — the part that’s not about keeping Trump out of the White House — plays up his cross-party appeal as a Republican who worked across the aisle governing New Jersey.

It’s a message ostensibly aimed at capturing Republican and independent voters looking for a return to a seemingly bygone era of politicking — when “compromise” wasn’t a “dirty word” and when presidents didn’t seemingly support their followers’ calls to execute their No. 2.

But Christie is picking up support from Democrats in the process — something of a career d?j? vu for a politician who romped to a second term as New Jersey governor with Democratic support. Interviews with a dozen Democrats across Christie’s recent campaign events in New Hampshire reveal clear interest in Christie, who placed sixth there in the 2016 primary. And many of these former Joe Biden voters are considering switching their party affiliation to vote for Christie in the first GOP presidential primary.

Christie’s campaign claims it’s not directly targeting Democrats — or even giving the across-the-aisle support much thought.

But his team isn’t rejecting it either.

“If Democrats want to donate or vote for him, we’re open to that,” a campaign spokesperson, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, told POLITICO. The spokesperson added that Democratic interest in the moderate Republican should be “expected” given Christie’s background leading a blue state.

That resume hasn’t translated to significant overall support for Christie, though he leaped ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in one recent poll.

Christie is attracting Democratic attention partly as a byproduct of how he’s running his campaign. If 100 New Hampshire town halls was the hallmark of his 2016 bid, television appearances are the cornerstone of his 2024 campaign.

That strategy — getting the former ABC News talking head on any cable news show, radio program or podcast that will have him, regardless of any ideological tilt — is aimed at reaching the broadest swath of potential Republican primary voters. But it’s also putting him directly in front of Democrats.

And those television appearances are translating to on-the-ground interest in New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state where Christie is staking his White House hopes for a second time.

Christie ranked third-highest among Democrats following the first Republican presidential debate.