Chris Christie drops from 2024 presidential race, ending anti-Trump run

Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, dropped from the Republican race for president on Wednesday, capping a long-shot, seven-month bid aimed at derailing Donald Trump.

Christie, who has taunted Trump more than any other candidate in the crowded GOP primary field, failed to gain traction in a party that remains largely loyal to the 45th president. In one debate, Christie called Trump “Donald Duck.”

In remarks at a town hall in Windham, N.H., on Wednesday night — the same night as a scheduled debate at which he wasn’t expected to appear — Christie said that he had run because a “case had to be made against” Trump. But the one-time New Jersey leader acknowledged he had no route to victory.

“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,” he said.

Christie, who could have split the vote of anti-Trump Republicans, said his decision was based on one overriding aim: “I am going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again.”

“That’s more important than my own personal ambitions,” he added.

The decision came five days ahead of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses, the starting gun for voting in the Republican primary.

Christie was polling in fifth place in the Republican primary campaign, about 58 points behind Trump, according to a polling average by FiveThirtyEight. In recent days, Christie had come under pressure to give up on his quixotic campaign.

He had hung his hopes on winning the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary, but that goal seemed increasingly out of reach. His exit could help Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and the most moderate contender left in the race.

As Christie departed the race Wednesday evening, hot mic audio emerged in which he appeared to say that Haley is going to “get smoked” and that Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is running alongside Haley and far behind Trump, sounded “petrified” in a recent phone call.

Trump said on social media that Christie had been caught making a “very truthful statement” about Haley.

“I hear Chris Christie is dropping out,” Trump wrote. “I might even get to like him again!”

Haley issued a statement saying that she counts Christie as a long-time friend.

“I commend him on a hard-fought campaign,” she said in the statement. “Voters have a clear choice in this election: the chaos and drama of the past or a new generation of conservative leadership.”

It is not clear how many of Christie’s would-be votes will flow to Haley, or if never-Trump Republicans might simply sit out the primary.

“He was the only one running the true anti-Trump campaign,” said Scott Jennings, a Republican strategist from Kentucky. But Jennings added that Christie’s exit might offer at least some boost to Haley in relatively moderate New Hampshire, which is seen as the state most likely to spurn Trump in the primary.

Christie, 61, endorsed Trump after dropping from the 2016 White House race. But he issued a straightforward apology in an ad he released earlier this month.

“Eight years ago, when I decided to endorse Donald Trump for president, I did it because he was winning, and I did it because I thought I could make him a better candidate, and a better president,” Christie said in the ad. “Well, I was wrong. I made a mistake.”

With David Goldiner and Brian Niemietz