Chris Christie throws in the towel. The only candidate openly hostile to Donald Trump in the GOP primary race is quitting his campaign just days before the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primaries. The battle is simplified, which hurts Trump, although the former president has a solid advantage.
The former governor of New Jersey never had any chance of being the nominated candidate. From the beginning he went against the majority current of the party, dedicated to the former president. He criticized him whenever he could. He was the only one who in the debates preferred to attack the absent Trump, leader in the polls, than against the rest of the candidates.
However, his candidacy ended up dividing the vote that he does not want Trump to repeat. Christie has been under intense pressure to withdraw and have the party's anti-Trump vote unite his forces behind a single alternative. Christie has explained on occasions that he did not want, for example, to recommend Nikki Haley, because she feared that she would look foolish if she later agreed to go with Trump as a vice presidential candidate.
“I would be happy to get out of the way in favor of someone who actually runs against Donald Trump,” he said at a forum in Rochester, New Hampshire, while arguing that none of his rivals had come forward. “I'm famous enough. I have many titles. The only reason to do this is to win,” he added. “So I would be happy to go out of my way for someone if it was really against Donald Trump.”
Haley is, in any case, the one who can take the most advantage of Christie's withdrawal, especially in New Hampshire, where she may have a chance of overtaking the former president in the primaries. Among those who have pressured Christie to retire is New Hamshire Governor Chris Sununu, who said last week: “He has the opportunity to come in and be the hero, to put Nikki on top, to give her, to hand Trump that defeat, Nikki that victory” in that state's primaries, which are held on January 23.
In them, the sum of Haley and Christie's voting intention exceeds that of Trump. If the only woman candidate manages to attract the majority of the now-retired votes, she would have a unique opportunity to add some excitement to a battle that seems won by Trump before it begins.
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Christie has repeatedly warned his party's voters against nominating a candidate who has been indicted four times and who could very well be doomed for November's presidential election. The former governor of New Jersey also believes that Trump will lose when push comes to shove against President Joe Biden, the probable Democratic candidate, because of all the votes he mobilizes against him.
Even so, the former governor himself does not believe it is very feasible that his withdrawal will help Haley beat Trump in the primaries.
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