Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie decided to pull out of the Republican presidential race for the November 2024 elections days before Iowa's leadoff caucuses in a last-ditch effort to deny former US President Donald Trump an easy way to the nomination. Speaking at a town hall in New Hampshire, Christie said the party had become hateful, divided and selfish under Trump's leadership.
"My goal has never been to be just a voice against the hate and division and the selfishness of what our party has become under Donald Trump. I've always said that if there came a point in time in this race where I couldn't see a path to accomplishing that goal, that I would get out. And it's clear to me tonight that there isn't a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I'm suspending my campaign tonight for president of the United States," said Christie.
The former Governor was recently overheard criticising his rival and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley as she entered a fiery debate with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in another Republican presidential primary debate on Wednesday. "She's going to get smoked. She's not up to this," he said.
The dropout comes as a surprise, given that Christie had staked the success of his campaign on New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, which is less than two weeks away. He had insisted as recently as Tuesday night that he had no plans to leave the race, claiming that he was the only candidate who could take on Trump.
"I would be happy to get out of the way for someone who is actually running against Donald Trump,” he said at a town hall in Rochester, New Hampshire. "I'm famous enough...I've got plenty of titles...The only reason to do this is to win," he added.
Christie's performance in polls
While recent polls showed him reaching the double digits in New Hampshire, Haley shows signs of momentum as a CNN/UNH poll finding Trump's lead down to the single digits, with 4 in 10 likely Republican primary voters choosing Trump and about one-third now choosing Haley.
Allies of Haley, including New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu and other anti-Trump Republicans, had been urging Christie to exit, hoping a large portion of his supporters would flock to Haley, giving her a chance to turn the race into a two-candidate contest with Trump.
Christie had run as the race's fiercest critic of the former president-turned-GOP frontrunner. He warned voters against nominating a candidate who has been criminally indicted four times and could very well be a convicted felon by the November general election.
However, he suffered high unfavorability ratings in a party that remains deeply loyal to Trump and his numbers remained in single digits in national polling. However, he managed to outlast former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
Haley vs DeSantis
In Wednesday's primary debate, Haley and Ron DeSantis called each other liars and insulted each other's records and character in the opening minutes, underscoring the high stakes with less than a week to the Iowa caucuses.
“We don't need another mealy-mouthed politician who just tells you what she thinks you want to hear, just to try to get your vote and then to get in office and to do her donors' bidding,” DeSantis said in an early barb. "He's upset that his campaign is exploding," Haley said in her reply.
For the fifth time, Trump skipped the debate and instead was holding a Fox News town hall nearby in Des Moines, giving him a prime-time platform with a friendly television audience.
(with inputs from agencies)
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