Kansas City, Kan. ? New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie praised Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s leadership during a Wednesday stopover in the Midwest, hoping to give his fellow Republican a boost in the polls amid Brownback’s tougher-than-expected race against Democrat Paul Davis.

Speaking outside Oklahoma Joe’s Kansas City Bar-B-Que in Kansas City, Kansas, Christie said Brownback “brought fiscal common sense to the state.” The appearance came a day after the Republican Governors Association, which Christie chairs, announced it was spending $600,000 on a television ad buy attacking Davis.

“Kansas is an important race for us in the country,” Christie said after talking and posing for pictures with diners. “The RGA is going to make a significant investment here in Kansas because we believe in Sam, and we believe in the policies he has instituted here in Kansas. They make a big, big difference in the lives of people who live here every day.”

The conservative Brownback is facing a strong challenge from Davis because of concerns about whether tax cuts Brownback’s administration delivered are boosting the economy or potentially ruining the state’s finances. Brownback and his supporters insist that his policies — particularly aggressive personal income tax cuts — have helped to create nearly 55,000 new private-sector jobs since he took office in January 2011. The Legislature’s nonpartisan research staff issued a new budget forecast earlier this month predicting a $238 million budget shortfall by July 2016 and the state’s credit rating has been downgraded.

Christie said he never expected Kansas to be an easy win for Brownback, noting that the state previously elected Democrat Kathleen Sebelius as its governor.

“Kansas voters are independent thinkers,” Christie said. “What they expect and what they will acknowledge on Nov. 4 is a governor who is willing to stand up and make the hard choices and Sam Brownback has been that kind of governor.”

Brownback criticized his campaign opponent as an “Obama Democrat” and attributed some of his challenges to people not knowing “the truth.”

“I don’t think they know the truth about how we fixed the pension system that was in the bankruptcy zone, and is now above that and moving forward,” he said. “I don’t think they know the truth about the job creation numbers.”

Diner Roy Everitt, a 60-year-old Republican from Kansas City, said he supported Brownback.

“I think he is trying to do the right thing,” Everitt said. “I don’t think he is doing that bad of a job.”

But tablemate Charlie Gilbert, a 76-year-old independent voter from Overland Park, complained that the state’s finances are “getting screwed up.”

“I think Christie is shooting himself in the foot by supporting Brownback,” he said.

Christie was set to appear at a fundraising event for Brownback in Mission Hills before heading to Oklahoma City later Wednesday to stump for Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin.