Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced during a Wednesday town hall that he is ending his presidential bid.
“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,” Christie told the town hall, saying it was “the right thing” to do.
Christie’s exit chiefly stands to benefit former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who has steadily gained ground in New Hampshire polls over the last several months while Donald Trump has slipped. Haley has taken second in the three most recent independent polls cited on 538, all taken since Dec. 15.
The latest, a CNN/University of New Hampshire survey of likely Republican primary voters, found the following:
- Trump: 39%
- Haley: 32%
- Christie: 12%
- Vivek Ramaswamy: 8%
- Ron DeSantis: 5%
Christie, who has run as the field’s most vocal Trump critic, has concentrated his entire race in the Granite State, amassing what is a presumably solid block of anti-Trump GOP voters. Based on his campaign, his supporters are most likely to accrue to Haley rather than DeSantis, who has chiefly run as a Trump mini-me. Some quick back of the napkin math suggests such a boost from Christie voters looking for a new home could make Haley competitive with Trump.
Ahead of Christie’s town hall event, the candidate was caught in a hot-mic moment lamenting that voters didn’t seem open to his message.
“People don’t want to hear it. They don’t want to hear it. We know we’re right. But they don’t want to hear it,” Christie said. “We couldn’t have been any clearer. We couldn’t have been any more direct or worked any harder. So. You know.”
Later, before the mic was cut, Christie also suggested Haley didn’t have a chance of winning.
”She’s gonna get smoked. And you and I both know it. She’s not up to this,” he said.
It’s unclear from the recording exactly who Christie was speaking with, but the Biden campaign was happy to help disseminate Christie’s sentiments.
