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Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie has ended his campaign for president, in a move that was expected to boost Nikki Haley and the remaining Republicans challenging Donald Trump for the party’s nomination for the White House.
“It’s clear to me that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination,” Christie said at a town hall event on Wednesday in Windham, New Hampshire. His withdrawal came just days ahead of the Iowa caucuses, the official start of the presidential primary season, on January 15.
Bobbie Kilberg, a Christie donor, told the Financial Times that the former governor did not intend to support another Republican candidate. He had not held any discussions with Haley about leaving the race as of the mid-afternoon, she added.
A tough-talking and talented debater, Christie had positioned himself as the only candidate willing to criticise Trump directly. The tagline for his campaign was “because the truth matters”.
“I’m saddened by it,” Kilberg said. “I really believe the message he was carrying was the right message, and that people needed to hear it, and they needed to listen. And they obviously didn’t. Not enough listened.”
While Christie’s decision should send some of his supporters to Haley’s campaign, he was heard saying in a campaign livestream just before taking the stage in New Hampshire that she would get “smoked” in the coming race and that Ron DeSantis was “petrified”.
Trump later referenced the remarks in a post on Truth Social, his social media platform, calling Christie’s “hot mic” comment about Haley “a very truthful statement”. DeSantis on the X social media site added: “I agree with Christie that Nikki Haley is ‘going to get smoked’.”
Trump has upped his attacks on Haley in recent days as she gains ground in the opinion polls, most notably in New Hampshire.
Despite Christie’s remarks, the most recent FT-Michigan Ross poll showed that Haley was the second choice of a plurality of Christie supporters. The former South Carolina governor on Wednesday night appeared to be seeking his endorsement, calling him “a friend for many years” who waged “a hard-fought campaign”.
Christie had focused his campaigning efforts almost exclusively on New Hampshire, the New England state that will hold the first primary in the country on January 23.
The brash former governor of New Jersey had hoped to win over New Hampshire’s independent-minded voters. A significant share of primary voters in New Hampshire are expected to be undeclared, or unaffiliated with either big political party.
But while he outlasted several other competitors, including former vice-president Mike Pence and South Carolina senator Tim Scott, he nevertheless failed to improve his polling numbers enough to make a credible claim that he was the only alternative to Trump.
Christie did not hit the threshold required to participate in Wednesday night’s CNN debate in Iowa, which will be a showdown between Haley and Florida governor Ron DeSantis. Trump qualified for the debate but is skipping the stage in favour of a duelling town hall event on Fox News.
According to the latest FiveThirtyEight polling average in New Hampshire, Trump leads with the support of roughly 42 per cent of Republican voters, followed by Haley on just under 30 per cent. Christie trailed in third, on close to 12 per cent.
Christie had faced growing calls to step aside from anti-Trump Republicans who argued that if his voters threw their weight behind Haley, she would consolidate enough support to overtake Trump.
Chris Sununu, New Hampshire’s Republican governor who has endorsed Haley, had publicly floated the idea of Christie suspending his campaign in recent days. But as recently as Tuesday, Christie rejected the idea, telling a local New Hampshire radio station that Sununu was a “liar”.
In the autumn, Christie’s campaign struggled to raise money after Haley began to take his type of supporters: well-educated, non-Trump Republicans, including influential Wall Street donors. She also earned the support of the libertarian Koch network.
By the end of September, Christie’s campaign had on hand only $3.9mn, compared with more than $11mn for Haley, over $12mn for DeSantis and more than $37mn for Trump.
Christie’s withdrawal from the race is the latest chapter in a tumultuous career that has been marked in recent years by a thorny relationship with Trump.
He was among the first national Republicans to endorse Trump after the former New Jersey governor suspended his first presidential campaign in 2016. Christie was appointed to head Trump’s transition team, but was fired from the position before inauguration day amid a conflict with Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law.
He nevertheless remained close to Trump, even preparing him for the 2020 presidential debates. But the two men fell out over Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of that year’s election.