Current:Home > ScamsChris Christie ends 2024 presidential bid that was based on stopping Donald Trump-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
Chris Christie ends 2024 presidential bid that was based on stopping Donald Trump
View Date:2024-12-24 00:07:20
Chris Christie announced Wednesday that he's suspending his campaign for the presidency, ending a bid that focused almost solely on criticizing Donald Trump and making the case that the former president should not be the Republican nominee.
"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 United States," he said at an event in Windham, New Hampshire.
Christie, the former New Jersey governor who famously endorsed Trump after ending his own 2016 presidential bid, was by far the most persistent critic of the former president on the 2024 campaign trail. But in a Republican party where Trump has maintained his status as the apparent frontrunner, Christie's narrowly focused bid always seemed to be a long-shot effort.
The turning point for Christie, who staked his entire presidential primary campaign on a strong showing in the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary, came when he failed to win the coveted endorsement of the state's GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, who instead backed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
Christie has not divulged whether he plans to endorse in the race, but minutes before the event in which he announced the suspension of his campaign, he could be heard on a hot mic saying, "She's gonna get smoked. And you and I both know it. She's not up to this." He did not mention Haley by name in that exchange, but another voice in the conversation seemed to reference her, saying that she was still "20 points behind Trump in New Hampshire."
Before the mic was cut off, Christie also said, "I talked to DeSantis. DeSantis called me, petrified," and then a few seconds later, the mic went silent.
It also became clear that Christie's path to the GOP nomination after the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary was essentially doomed. He was not able to make the ballot in Maine, a Super Tuesday state, and did not have a substantial ground game in any state outside of New Hampshire.
Anti-Trump Republicans, including Sununu, began calling on Christie to get out and help consolidate support behind Haley. On CNN Tuesday, Sununu said, "a vote for Christie is a vote being taken away from Nikki Haley and prevents delivering that loss to the former president."
Still, Christie refused, often saying he would be willing to drop out and potentially endorse Nikki Haley if the former U.N. ambassador came out clearly, in Christie's view, against Trump and publicly committed to not taking a position in a Trump White House.
"I will be happy to get out of the way for someone who is actually running against Donald Trump," Christie said to voters at a town hall in Rochester, New Hampshire, this week who pushed Christie on his chances in the state. "If there was someone else, anyone else, in this race who are willing to take him on, I'd be happy to work with that person [to defeat Donald Trump]."
Last month, Christie's campaign launched an ad series called "Truth Matters." The latest ad, "The Truth," indirectly targeted Haley. "Most of the other candidates in this race are all trying to look into people's eyes and figure out what they want to hear," Christie said in the ad. His campaign positioned him as a candidate who would tell the truth, even on issues like Trump's fitness to be president or a national abortion ban.
The latest ad, titled "The Truth," indirectly targeted Nikki Haley. "Most of the other candidates in this race are all trying to look into people's eyes and figure out what they want to hear," Christie said in the ad. Christie's campaign positioned him as a candidate who would tell the "truth," even on the hard issues like Trump's fitness to be president or a national abortion ban.
Christie and his political operation attempted to evoke the straight talk approach of the late John McCain in New Hampshire and replicate the late Arizona GOP senator's wins in the 2000 and 2008 state primaries. But the Republican Party has changed dramatically since McCain ran nationwide.
Complicating Christie's push was the reality that in 2016, New Hampshire gave Trump his first primary victory. By capturing the state primary that year, Trump began to build momentum that ultimately delivered him the GOP nomination and a stunning upset in the 2016 presidential election.
Christie backed Trump once again in 2020, but as a 2024 candidate, he stressed his abundant criticism of Trump as the nation reckoned with the former president's failed attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
That effort was complicated by Haley, who has managed to build a coalition that includes former Trump supporters and critics of the former president. Undeclared voters in New Hampshire, who represent a major segment of the state's registrations, may cast ballots in the Republican primary. In essence, that helps make New Hampshire the first state where Trump critics have a sizable chance to challenge the former president's ambitions of returning to the White House.
Many Christie campaign events in the state often had attendees from neighboring Maine and Massachusetts, and, while that's not unusual for New Hampshire, they voiced to reporters — and to Christie himself — that they were drawn to Christie for his criticism of the former president, but they would have no impact on the race in New Hampshire.
Recent polling from CBS News showed Haley polling a strong second behind Trump in New Hampshire, bolstering the pressure Christie was facing to drop out if he really wanted to help try to stop Trump from winning the GOP nomination.
Christie struggled when he ran in New Hampshire's 2016 presidential primary and only ended up winning around 7% of the vote.
- In:
- Donald Trump
- Chris Christie
Hunter Woodall is a political editorial producer for CBS News. He covered the 2020 New Hampshire primary for The Associated Press and has also worked as a Kansas statehouse reporter for The Kansas City Star and the Washington correspondent for Minnesota's Star Tribune.
TwitterveryGood! (6161)
Related
- Quincy Jones' Cause of Death Revealed
- The case of a Memphis man charged with trying to enter a Jewish school with a gun is moving forward
- Auto workers escalate strike as 8,700 workers walk out at a Ford Kentucky plant
- Early morning storms prompt tornado warnings, damage throughout Florida
- Flurry of contract deals come as railroads, unions see Trump’s election looming over talks
- New York governor backs suspension of ‘right to shelter’ as migrant influx strains city
- Contract talks between Hollywood studios and actors break down again
- Air quality has been horrible this year — and it's not just because of wildfire smoke
- The View's Sara Haines Walks Off After Whoopi Goldberg's NSFW Confession
- Harvard student groups doxxed after signing letter blaming Israel for Hamas attack
Ranking
- Harriet Tubman posthumously honored as general in Veterans Day ceremony: 'Long overdue'
- Sculpture commemorating historic 1967 Cleveland summit with Ali, Jim Brown, other athletes unveiled
- Transgender residents in North Carolina, Montana file lawsuits challenging new state restrictions
- Kansas basketball coach Bill Self won't face additional penalties from infractions case
- Why Kathy Bates Decided Against Reconstruction Surgery After Double Mastectomy for Breast Cancer
- No. 1 pick Connor Bedard scores first career goal in slick play vs. Boston Bruins
- Why Russia is engaged in a delicate balancing act in the Israel-Hamas war
- Maps and satellite images reveal Gaza devastation as Israel retaliates for Hamas attack
Recommendation
-
NATO’s Rutte calls for more Western support for Ukraine, warns of Russian alliances
-
Judge in Trump's New York fraud trial explains why there's no jury
-
Nets coach Vaughn says team from Israel wants to play exhibition game Thursday despite war at home
-
USADA announces end of UFC partnership as Conor McGregor re-enters testing pool
-
Mike Tyson employs two trainers who 'work like a dream team' as Jake Paul fight nears
-
Musk’s X has taken down hundreds of Hamas-linked accounts, CEO says
-
While the news industry struggles, college students are supplying some memorable journalism
-
For Indigenous people, solar eclipse often about reverence and tradition, not revelry