Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie dropped out of the 2024 Republican presidential primary Wednesday evening, ending his low-polling Granite State-based campaign ahead of the first nominating contests this month.
Christie told supporters gathered in Windham, N.H., on Wednesday evening that he joined the race with the goal of winning the nomination, defeating President Biden and restoring the Republican Party and the U.S. “to a new place of hope and optimism in this country.”
“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,” Christie said. “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.”
Christie went on to acknowledge that his announcement may come as a disappointment to those who have supported him, but added, “I also know, though, it’s the right thing for me to do because I want to promise you this: I’m going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again and that’s more important that my own personal ambition.”
Ahead of his town hall announcement, Christie appeared to rail against Nikki Haley’s chances of beating Trump in New Hampshire in an apparent hot mic moment before the livestream of his event shut off.
Speaking to reporters moments before his town hall was set to begin, Christie could be heard on a hot mic saying that the former South Carolina governor, who is expected to inherit Christie’s supporters, is “gonna get smoked” in the contest. Right before the livestream was cut off, Christie could be heard saying that DeSantis had called him recently and sounded “petrified.”
BREAKING: While waiting for Chris Christie announcement, he can be heard on a hot mic criticizing @NikkiHaley while talking to someone.
“She’s gonna get smoked,” he says. “You and I both know it, she’s not up to this.”
He also claims DeSantis called him, then feed is cut. pic.twitter.com/3Lrz2t6BQ8
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) January 10, 2024
The move comes hours after National Review reported on an intense pressure campaign by anti-Trump Republicans who have urged Christie to exit the race ahead of the New Hampshire primary to boost Nikki Haley, who has cut into frontrunner Donald Trump’s lead in recent polls. His decision came as a surprise to many of his own steering committee members, many of whom told National Review in the hours leading up to his announcement they had not been informed about his decision to bow out of the race.
NEW in @NRO: Rumors swirling in NH Christie will use Wed town hall in Windham to announce he's dropping..
Christie campaign: “We have a public town-hall event in Windham so have invited our supporters. Hardly some sort of ‘huddle.’”
W/ @brittybernstein https://t.co/fiausaNhLZ
— Audrey Fahlberg (@AudreyFahlberg) January 10, 2024
Christie joined the race in June as the most vocal Trump critic in the Republican field. He called Trump a “lonely, self-consumed, self-serving mirror hog,” in his campaign announcement.
The former blue-state governor focused his campaign solely on New Hampshire, where he reached third place in polls but failed to come close to frontrunner Donald Trump, or Nikki Haley, who emerged as Trump’s most formidable opponent in the state.
Christie increasingly faced calls to drop out as the New Hampshire primary neared and polling indicted a tightening race between Haley and Trump. A CNN/University of New Hampshire poll found Haley coming within seven percentage points of Trump in the Granite State in early January, while Christie notched 12 percent support – enough to potentially make-or-break Haley’s bid to defeat Trump in the state.
And in national polling, Christie failed to break through, sitting in fifth place with an average of 3.5 percent support, per a RealClearPolitics polling average.
Christie initially pushed back against calls to resign, expressing concern that Haley would not say whether she’d accept an offer from Trump to run as his vice president should he win the nomination.
“Let’s say I dropped out of the race right now and I supported Nikki Haley,” Christie told supporters. “And then three months from now, four months from now, when you’re ready to go to the convention, she comes out as his vice president. What will I look like? What will all the people who supported her at my behest look like?”
“I’m not going to make the same mistake again,” Christie said.
Christie first ran for president in 2016, finishing sixth-place in New Hampshire before dropping out and becoming the first high-profile Republican presidential candidate to endorse Trump.
He’s still haunted by that decision, releasing an ad earlier this month admitting he “made a mistake” in endorsing the forty-fifth president eight years ago. Still, the former New Jersey governor went on to support Trump’s reelection bid in 2020 and even helped him prepare for the debates.
Throughout the 2024 race, Trump refused to participate in any of the Republican National Committee-sponsored debates, depriving Christie of the confrontation which served as the motivating rationale for his campaign.
The former New Jersey governor has pledged not to support Trump if he becomes the nominee, but has said he would “absolutely” support Haley or Florida governor Ron DeSantis if they won the nomination.
Haley reacted to Christie’s exit in a statement on Wednesday: “Chris Christie has been a friend for many years. I commend him on a hard-fought campaign. Voters have a clear choice in this election: the chaos and drama of the past or a new generation of conservative leadership. I will fight to earn every vote, so together we can build a strong and proud America.”