Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to announce that he is suspending his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination during a 5 p.m. event in Windham, New Hampshire, according to a source familiar with his plans.
The announcement will mark the exit of the most outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary.
During his remarks, Christie will outline his rationale for the GOP going forward, but he has no immediate plans to endorse another candidate, according to a Republican source.
Christie’s decision will come on the heels of a new batch of disappointing poll numbers, especially in New Hampshire, where he hoped a less conservative electorate would coalesce around his sharp opposition to Trump, whom he described as “devoid of character.”
His expected departure could be a boon to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has pulled to within single digits of Trump in the Granite State, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire. The survey found that 65% of Christie supporters – 12% of the total – listed Haley as their second choice. She trailed Trump 39% to 32% among likely primary voters.
Whether Christie himself will do the same and encourage his backers to follow suit is an open question. Before his exit, he slammed Haley repeatedly and suggested she was running to be Trump’s vice president with an eye on a promotion in 2028.
Pressed by a voter on Tuesday about the urgency of anti-Trump Republicans to unite around a single opponent, Christie again questioned Haley’s intentions – and expressed anxiety over how endorsing her might reflect on him.
“Let’s say I dropped out of the race right now and I supported Nikki Haley. 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?” he said.
After vehemently denying Tuesday that he was considering dropping out, Christie earlier Wednesday appeared to give a hint of what would come hours later.
“I beseech you, I beg you to vote based on character. All the rest of the things can change. Character doesn’t change,” he told voters in Exeter, New Hampshire. “Frankly, doesn’t mean you have to vote for me. You might decide that there’s another person in this race of good character that you prefer.”
Christie launched his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination at a June 2023 town hall in New Hampshire, which he used to deliver a searing indictment of Trump, calling his one-time friend and close political ally a “lonely, self-consumed mirror hog” whose potential election to a second term as president represents an existential threat to American democracy.
“Beware of the leader in this country, who you have handed leadership to, who has never made a mistake, who has never done anything wrong,” Christie said. “Who when something goes wrong it’s always someone else’s fault. And who has never lost.”
His message in smaller, more conservative rooms was less colorful and more utilitarian. Trump, he said over and over again, was a radioactive general election candidate who would be defeated – and take down the rest of the GOP ticket with him.
“We keep losing and losing and losing,” Christie said at a Republican Jewish Coalition conference in 2022, just weeks after the midterm elections proved underwhelming for the GOP. “The reason we’re losing is because Donald Trump has put himself before everybody else.”
he posted to Instagram in 2015. Christie was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1962. His family later moved to Livingston, New Jersey, where he attended high school before enrolling at the University of Delaware.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”1600″/>
Christie wrote on Instagram.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”1600″ loading=’lazy’/>
posted this picture of them together in 2015, 30 years after it was taken. The two were married in 1986, and they have four children.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”1600″ loading=’lazy’/>
During his speech, Christie argued that the American people should focus on ideas rather than rhetoric. He also outlined differences between Republicans and Democrats on governing philosophy while highlighting his bipartisan achievements, such as balancing the state’s budget and reforming the pension and health benefit system.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2381″ loading=’lazy’/>
toured devastated beach towns together. “I think the people of New Jersey recognize that (Christie) has put his heart and soul into making sure that the people of New Jersey bounce back even stronger than before. I want to thank him for his extraordinary leadership and partnership,” Obama said.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2382″ loading=’lazy’/>
were convicted in 2017 of using their power to close the lanes as an act of political revenge. In 2020, the US Supreme Court threw out the fraud convictions.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2400″ loading=’lazy’/>
the memorable takeaways of the night.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2500″ loading=’lazy’/>
endorsed Trump for president. “There is no one who is better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs,” he said.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2397″ loading=’lazy’/>
Christie’s speech was heavily critical of the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee. “It is our obligation to stop Hillary Clinton now and never let her within 10 miles of the White House again,” he said. “It is time to come together and make sure that Donald Trump is our next president. I am proud to be part of this team. Now let’s go win this thing.”” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2400″ loading=’lazy’/>
would take on an advisory role to help figure out ways the administration can fight the country’s opioid epidemic.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2414″ loading=’lazy’/>
They were the only ones there because two days earlier, Christie shut down the state government after the Legislature failed to pass a budget. All state-run tourist attractions were closed to the public.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2582″ loading=’lazy’/>
spent seven days in an intensive care unit, and he wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed with the headline “I Should Have Worn a Mask.”” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2400″ loading=’lazy’/>
announces his presidential run in June 2023.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1600″ width=”2400″/>
CNN town hall event hosted by Anderson Cooper in New York in June 2023.” class=”image__dam-img image__dam-img–loading” onload=’this.classList.remove(‘image__dam-img–loading’)’ onerror=”imageLoadError(this)” height=”1419″ width=”2129″/>
In pictures: Presidential candidate Chris Christie
The former governor made his willingness to directly take on Trump a key feature of his campaign, repeatedly hitting the GOP front-runner over his cascading legal troubles and, in recent weeks, Trump’s increasingly bitter, hateful rhetoric.
“He’s becoming crazier,” Christie said of Trump on CNN’s “State of the Union” last month.
Asked about Trump’s remark that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” the former governor let fly.
“He’s disgusting,” Christie said. “And what he’s doing is dog-whistling to Americans who feel absolutely under stress and strain from the economy and from the conflicts around the world.”
Back in 2016, Christie endorsed Trump after dropping out of the GOP presidential primary and then advised him on his 2020 presidential campaign. But he told CNN’s Jake Tapper last year that Trump’s behavior on election night that year took his support to the breaking point, and soon beyond.
“Turns out I was wrong (about Trump). I couldn’t make him a better candidate and I couldn’t make him a better president,” Christie said. “He disappointed me.”
Christie has also said that Trump “incited” the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the US Capitol “in an effort to intimidate Mike Pence and the Congress into doing exactly what he said in his own words last week: overturn the election.”
At the first Republican primary debate in Milwaukee last August, Christie called out most of his rivals onstage for raising their hands when asked if they would support Trump as the GOP nominee even if he was convicted of a crime. (Trump currently faces 91 charges across four cases, along with growing civil liabilities.)
“Someone’s got to stop normalizing this conduct,” Christie said, after shaking his head in disapproval at the six candidates who raised their hands. “Whether or not you believe that the criminal charges are right or wrong, the conduct is beneath the office of president of the United States.”
Though Christie was met with boos from the audience, he told New Hampshire voters in his first post-debate appearance, “I will never raise my hand to say it’s OK to have a convicted felon as the president of the United States.”
“So let’s establish that here on primary night in New Hampshire,” he said. “And if you do that, I’m telling you, I will win the nomination, and I will beat Joe Biden.”
Christie made his focus on the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary no secret, making regular stops in the Granite State since early September.
“Let me just tell you, if (Trump) wins here, he’s winning the nomination,” Christie said at a town hall in North Hampton, New Hampshire, on one of those swings.
In 2016, Christie had stood beside Trump and offered his support just weeks after exiting the GOP primary after coming in sixth in the New Hampshire vote.
Christie made clear that his latest presidential bid would be different. On the trail, he did not rule out voting for a third-party candidate in the general election, though he has said he wouldn’t launch an outside bid of his own, calling it a “fool’s errand.”
“If I lose in the primary, I lose,” he told New Hampshire voters in September. “What I learned eight years ago was you go home and you feel lousy for a while, but the sun comes up in the morning and you find other ways to try to contribute to your country.”
This story has been updated with additional reporting.
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