Chris Christie Out? New Jersey Governor Set To Make An Announcement About Suspending Campaign
Chris Christie may be out of the running for the presidency. The New Jersey Governor suffered a dismal turnout in the New Hampshire primary and almost immediately announced he was heading home to regroup and discuss the state of his campaign with his family.
According to CNN, Chris Christie and his top aides have been meeting to work out the details of the suspension of his GOP bid for the Oval Office. One unnamed source reportedly close to the campaign deemed the New Jersey governor a “political realist” and knows that a lack of money and not scoring high enough to be included in Saturday’s South Carolina debate makes it virtually impossible to continue on.
Christie plans to issue a statement about his campaign later this afternoon, the Washington Times reports.
Christie finished in sixth place, ahead of only Washington outsiders Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina. Whether or not Carson and Fiorina are intending to bow out of the race is not yet known. During morning news interviews on Monday, Carly stated that she would be moving on to South Carolina regardless of the New Hampshire results.
NEW: Chris Christie expected to formally suspend his presidential campaign as early as today, @ABC News has learned pic.twitter.com/wdHfW9JUEA
— ABC News (@ABC) February 10, 2016
Governor Chris Christie garnered only 7 percent of the Republican primary vote in New Hampshire. Another unnamed campaign source also stated that many in the political realm have “left Christie for dead” after the bridge scandal, but his ability to “claw his way back” into a competitive position before the New Hampshire primary is a testament to his resilience.
Neither source could indicate whether or not Christie will endorse another GOP candidate when he officially suspends his presidential campaign. One of the sources stated that there is no reason to endorse a former competitor at this time, but he would quite possibly endorse another governor in the near future.
Chris Christie campaign representative Sam Smith said that no decision about dropping out of the race has yet been made, MSN reports. Scheduled plans to head to South Carolina today by Christie were cancelled.
Chris Christie is reportedly suspending his presidential campaign https://t.co/h3CdL8RRqn pic.twitter.com/iASRQTHDhO
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) February 10, 2016
“I think the whole race changed last night. Because you know there was a march among the chattering class to anoint Senator Rubio,” Chris Christie said during an interview with Jake Tapper on State of the Union after the debate went after Rubio. “I think after last night, that’s over. So I think there could be four or five tickets out of New Hampshire because the race is so unsettled now.”
Trey Gowdy, who endorses Marco Rubio, had this to say about Chris Christie’s attack on the Florida Senator during the debate on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.
“What Chris Christie did was an in-kind contribution to the Democrat party. There was no chance that Chris Christie was ever going to be our nominee, and he’s certainly not going to do well in South Carolina if he bothers to come.”
Rubio, the candidate that Chris Christie referred to as the “boy in the bubble,” finished in fifth place in the New Hampshire primary.
Christie appeared to have placed all of his chips on the New Hampshire primary. By February 8, the New Jersey Governor had made almost 200 stops in the state. He had also garnered an endorsement by an influential union leader in the state. Neither the number of high-profile endorsements nor the desires of party leaders appear to have deterred Democrat or Republican voters determined to shake up Washington, D.C., in 2016.
[Photo by Dennis Van Tine/STAR MAX/IPx]
