Sununu Urges Christie to Make Way for Haley in New Hampshire

(Bloomberg) -- New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu encouraged Chris Christie to drop out of the 2024 presidential race to clear the way for Nikki Haley, the Republican candidate he’s endorsed.

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“There’s no doubt that if he stays in the race, the risk is that he takes her margin of the win,” Sununu said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union, referring to the former New Jersey governor. “I think he’s going to make the right decision.”

Sununu offered his logic in terms of polling numbers in New Hampshire, which holds its presidential primary on Jan. 23. An American Research Group poll published Dec. 21 put the former US ambassador to the United Nations within 4 percentage points of former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

“Chris Christie isn’t going to make up 30 points in the next few weeks, right?” Sununu said. “Nikki Haley could make up five or 10 points and kind of give Trump that defeat that no one thought was possible in the next few weeks, and I think that’s very likely to happen.”

Calls for Christie to step aside aren’t new and he responded to them in an ad targeted at New Hampshire voters last week.

“Some people say I should drop out of this race,” Christie says in the ad. “Really? I’m the only one saying Donald Trump is a liar.”

According to Sununu, dropping out would give Christie what he wants. “He wants to see Trump defeated,” Sununu said. “The only person who wants Chris Christie to stay in the race is Donald Trump.”

Sununu brushed off the attacks on Haley for her failure to name slavery as a cause of the Civil War in a town hall on Dec. 27. “It’s a non-issue,” Sununu said.

Christie called her answer proof she “is unwilling to offend anyone by telling the truth.”

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