By MARY LOU MASTERS
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the Republican presidential race on Wednesday just days before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary.
Christie, a staunch critic of former President Donald Trump, focused his presidential campaign solely on New Hampshire, where the first-in-the-nation primary is on Jan. 23. After largely failing to gain traction in national and key early nominating state polls, the former governor called it quits during a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire.
“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. “It’s the right thing for me to do. Because, I want to promise you this — I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again.”
Christie had been facing pressure from Republican Gov. Chris Sununu to drop out of the race so that the non-Trump field could consolidate around former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, whom he endorsed in mid-December.
The former New Jersey governor had ramped up attacks on Haley recently over declining to rule out being Trump’s vice president following her surge in the New Hampshire polls.
While Trump still holds a comfortable lead ahead of the GOP primary field nationally and in key early nominating states, Haley has risen to second in New Hampshire in the RealClearPolitics average. The former ambassador currently has 29.3% support compared to Trump’s 43%, and Christie is the only other candidate to poll in the double digits in the state.
Christie raised only $5.4 million since his June presidential launch, with $3.9 million cash on hand, according to the most recent data from the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Fundraising totals for 2023’s fourth quarter won’t be released by the FEC until Jan. 31.
The former governor dropped out of the 2016 Republican primary directly after coming in sixth place in New Hampshire with only 7.4% support. Christie later endorsed Trump for president.