Potential presidential candidate and current New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie will be at Iowa State on Thursday to give a speech on the upper terrace of the Memorial Union.

Christie will speak at 11 a.m., weather permitting, and plans to visit Hickory Park for lunch around 1 p.m. before heading to Des Moines to speak at the Polk County Republicans’ spring dinner.

K-12 and higher education policies are expected to be the centerpiece of the governor’s remarks. Christie, who recently withdrew his support for Common Core, has proposed developing a new set of state benchmarks. He has pushed the idea that reforms put into place in New Jersey could be adopted nationally.

The ISU event will be hosted by Leadership Matters for America PAC, of which Christie serves as honorary chairman. Pundits have pointed to his chairmanship as a clear indicator he plans to make a run at the presidency in 2016. Once thought of as a frontrunner for the nomination, scandals like “Bridgegate” have lessened his popularity among Republicans.

Christie received a 58 percent “unfavorable” rating among Republican caucus goers in the Bloomberg Politics/Des Moines Register Iowa poll released May 30.

If Christie officially joins the 2016 presidential race he would be the 11th Republican to go along with the four Democrats currently in the race.