Cowboys Fan Chris Christie Says He’ll Beat Hillary Clinton. In Pennsylvania.

Chris Christie isn’t even a declared presidential candidate — yet — but he’s already got some fighting words ready for Hillary Clinton.

“If I run, I will beat her,” Christie told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday.

Hewitt, sensibly, asked which “blue” states Christie might win back from Democrats to make that happen. Christie’s first answer was automatic: Pennsylvania. The Keystone State has watched him govern New Jersey for more than five years, he said, and is comfortable with his style.

“If I were to run, I think Pennsylvania is a state that is very much in play,” Christie told Hewitt.

Maybe. But the evidence suggests that Clinton already has a head start on Christie in Pennsylvania.

• An early February poll from Quinnipiac University showed that Christie is Clinton’s strongest Republican challenger in Pennsylvania — and even he isn’t all that close. “She still leads the neighboring celebrity governor 50 percent to 39 percent,” the Inquirer noted. “The former secretary of state and former first lady performs strongly among women voters in Pennsylvania, leading Christie 57 percent to 34 percent among this group, the poll found.”

• The margin was even bigger in a Morning Call poll later the same month. Clinton beat Christie among Pennsylvanians by a whopping 50 percent to 31 percent among voters. Ouch.

Now: November 2016 is still a long ways away. Hillary Clinton was winning a lot of hypothetical matchups at this same point in the 2008 election cycle, as well, and look how that turned out. But Democrats are going to have a Pennsylvania trump card if Christie becomes the GOP nominee, and it looks something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qgFljTbhTg

And this: “These Philadelphia fans, they are the worst in America,” Mr. Christie was overheard saying when he attended a game between the Cowboys and Eagles last month.”

If Pennsylvania ends up being a crucial battleground in the presidential race, it’s not difficult to imagine somebody putting that Christie hug of Jerry Jones on constant loop in the Philadelphia TV market. Eagles fans vote, too.

Follow @JoelMMathis on Twitter.