(CN) — Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie dropped out of the Republican presidential race Wednesday just days before the Iowa caucuses.
“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,” he said.
Prior to the official announcement, a hot mic caught the former governor saying just before his prepared remarks that fellow candidate Nikki Haley “is going to get smoked” and said she was “punching above her weight.” He also said DeSantis called Christie “petrified” that former President Donald Trump would win Iowa.
“People don’t want to hear it, we know we’re right, but they don’t want to hear it,” Christie said of his campaign’s limited success during the hot mic moment.
During previous remarks to reporters earlier this month, Christie had said he would not keep his campaign going if he couldn’t realistically lock up the nomination early. “I have no interest in doing this if it’s not going to lead to success,” he said. Christie did not endorse any other candidate during Wednesday’s announcement.
Christie had faced a steep uphill climb even without the front-runner Trump on the ballot. He failed to qualify for the Jan. 10 Republican debate in Iowa, which featured only Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and Trump, though Trump will be holding his own town hall instead.
Chances of success kept getting smaller in recent weeks, with Christie being recently removed from the primary ballot in Maine after the state Supreme Court said he lacked the necessary signatures.
Christie’s polling was considered dismal from the get-go, with his numbers never reaching higher than 5% — and often a point or two less than that. However, Christie had downplayed his polling, saying recently that “anybody thinks I’m getting out of this race, they’re crazy.”
New Hampshire was different than other states, though, with Christie focusing his campaign heavily on the Granite State and polling in the double digits, ahead of only DeSantis and Vikek Ramaswamy and about 20 points lower than Haley. He did poll better than former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, though.
During the first Republican debate, Christie sparred with Ramaswamy, calling the entrepreneur “an obnoxious blowhard” and later calling him a “drunk driver on the debate stage.” The Republican National Committee later threatened to bar both candidates from future primary debates if they decided to debate separately on Fox News.
Haley had emerged as Christie’s newest foe before he left the race. He hinted that the former South Carolina governor was a typical lying politician, while he was “looking into people’s eyes and knowing that the truth is ultimately what they need to hear and what they deserve to hear.” Polls from last November reported on by ABC News found Christie and Haley competing for the same subsection of Republican voters.
Christie first ran for president in 2015, though he dropped out in early 2016. He then endorsed Trump and had been a supporter throughout Trump’s tenure in the White House, helping to fill cabinet roles and promoting his own former staffers to the Trump team.
The relationship ended, however, in 2021 after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Christie called that day a “red line” and criticized Republicans who still stood by the former president.
That antagonism only grew when Christie decided to run for president himself, calling Trump a “coward” for refusing to back Ukraine against Russia. He also said the former president has nothing but a “big mouth,” and that he “doesn’t give a damn about the people of the United States.” Christie also stood out among the other Republican presidential hopefuls — along with Hutchinson — by promising not to pardon Trump if elected.
“The phrase ‘Make America Great Again’ has always offended me because it implied that America wasn’t great,” Christie said at the town hall in New Hampshire, swiping at President Trump. “America is great. It was great long before those red hats showed up, and it will be great long after they are consigned to history.”
A former federal prosecutor, Christie served two terms as New Jersey governor. His popularity swelled after Hurricane Sandy, when he worked closely with President Barack Obama on the recovery.
That popularity waned after the 2013 Bridgegate scandal, in which two of three lanes leading onto the George Washington Bridge were closed for a supposed “traffic study” and caused backups in Fort Lee. Several former Christie aides claimed the shutdown was orchestrated by the governor as political payback against the town’s Democratic mayor.
Christie has repeatedly said he knew nothing of the plan to shut down the lanes, though his former political fixer David Wildstein turned government witness and claimed he had laughed with Christie about the traffic during a photo shoot within sight of the Statute of Liberty. Christie’s former deputy chief of staff was later sentenced to 13 months for her role in the shutdown.
The governor also caught flak for a photograph of him and his family lying on a beach after state beaches had been shut down in July 2017 during a state budget crisis. Christie’s response to his critics at the time was, “I’m sorry they’re not the governor.”
With Christie gone, Trump remains the clear front-runner in the Republican field, though Haley has been able to narrow the gap somewhat.
Follow @NickRummell
Subscribe to Closing Arguments
Sign up for new weekly newsletter Closing Arguments to get the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and hot cases and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world.
