NASHUA, N.H. – New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropped out of the Republican nomination for president on Wednesday, a day after his disappointing sixth-place finish in New Hampshire’s primary.
Campaign spokeswoman Samantha Smith said Christie shared his decision with staff at his campaign headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, late Wednesday afternoon, and was calling donors and other supporters.
Christie on Tuesday night told supporters he was heading home to New Jersey to “take a deep breath,” await the final tally of results from New Hampshire and decide what to do next. He said he was leaving New Hampshire “without an ounce of regret,” but spoke of his campaign in the past tense at one point and cancelled a Wednesday event in next-to-vote South Carolina.
Christie had been banking on a strong finish in New Hampshire and spent more than 70 days campaigning in the state, holding well-received town halls and meet-and-greets.
But Tuesday’s result appeared to be the final blow for a candidate whose campaign saw glimmers of hope at times, but had trouble from the get-go raising money and building support in a crowded Republican field dominated by another brash East Coaster, businessman Donald Trump.
While Trump posed a challenge to the entire Republican field, his dominance seemed especially damaging to Christie, who had branded himself the “telling it like it is” candidate.
When he returns home to finish his second term as governor, Christie will face a slew of unsolved problems and rock-bottom approval ratings from residents who, polls show, feel he neglected New Jersey to pursue his national ambitions.
Trump, Sanders unstoppable?
CONCORD, N.H. – The current and former chiefs of the state Republican Party condemned him. New Hampshire’s only two Republican members of Congress refused to endorse him. The conservative owner of the state’s largest newspaper called him “a con man” on the front page.
Donald Trump won anyway – big time.
So, too, did Bernie Sanders, who will leave New Hampshire with the commanding victory one might expect of a front-runner blessed with the near universal favor of his party. Except all that establishment support belongs to Hillary Clinton.
Trump’s 18-point victory and the self-described democratic socialist’s 21-point win are reminders of the limits of party power in an age of anger toward Washington and frustration with politics.
Many Republican Party leaders may be terrified by Trump’s ascendance, but have yet to divine a way to stop the billionaire real estate mogul. Clinton may have all the endorsements of her party’s bold-faced names, but it is Sanders who is winning over the young people and independents who helped push Barack Obama to the White House.
On Tuesday, establishment-minded Republicans from New Hampshire expressed a mix of frustration and shame that it was their state that delivered Trump’s first victory. “I refuse to support him under any circumstance,” said Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Party chairman. “Trump would be a disaster.”
Cullen likened Trump to Pat Buchanan in 1996, the divisive former Nixon aide and conservative commentator who also won the New Hampshire primary. GOP leaders quickly coalesced behind mainstream alternative Bob Dole, the former Republican Senate leader who went on win the nomination.
It wasn’t because they loved Dole, Cullen said, but because they feared Buchannan would embarrass the Republican Party. “The party was able to stop Buchannan 20 years ago,” Cullen said. “Today, they’re incapable of doing it.”
Between now and March 15 is South Carolina, Nevada and the more than a dozen states that vote on March 1 – time that Trump, and Sen. Ted Cruz, can use to further their edge. Despite questions about the strength of his ground game, Trump continues to hold a commanding lead in many preference polls in the South’s first primary – and he could get a bump from his New Hampshire success.
Sanders may, too, but he has much further to climb as the Democratic race moves ahead.
South Carolina and Nevada are more racially diverse states than Iowa and New Hampshire, which should play to Clinton’s longstanding strength with minority voters. And unlike Republicans, Democrats give hundreds of party insiders a vote at the national convention to cast as they choose. Among those so-called superdelegates, Clinton already has a commanding 352 delegate edge in the race for the 2,382 needed to win the nomination.
“This is not a two-round boxing match, it’s a 12-round boxing match,” said Bob Mulholland, a longtime California Democratic strategist. “And I want to remind everybody the last three presidents came second in New Hampshire – Clinton, Bush and Obama.”
A more aggressive approach
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Facing the biggest test of his presidential bid, Marco Rubio promised a more aggressive approach in what his team expects to become an extended Republican nomination fight that could result in a brokered national convention.
“I don’t need to start these fights, but if someone starts one in the future, we’re going to have to point out the differences in our records in a sharper way,” Rubio told reporters Wednesday aboard his charter flight from New Hampshire to South Carolina. “I don’t think we have the luxury any longer to basically say look, ‘I don’t want to argue with Republicans.’”
The comments came after a disappointing 5th-place finish in New Hampshire’s presidential primary. The poor result was a reflection, he said, of a high-profile stumble in Saturday night’s debate that pushed undecided voters toward other candidates.
And as he shifts his attention to South Carolina’s Feb. 20 contest, the 44-year-old freshman senator wants voters to know he’s learned an important lesson from his experience in New Hampshire. Instead of trying to avoid attacking his GOP rivals on the debate stage, Rubio said he’s now prepared to fight back when necessary – particularly with his party’s front-runner Trump.
“The hard thing about Donald in the short-term is he doesn’t have any policy positions,” Rubio said. “He tells you what he’s going to do, but he won’t tell you how he’s going to do it. I think once this race narrows, the pressure will be on him.”
New Hampshire destroyed any momentum Rubio had coming out of Iowa and for now, at least, locks Rubio in a messy muddle in his party’s establishment wing. Both Ohio Gov. John Kasich and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush beat Rubio in New Hampshire in the contest to emerge as the mainstream alternative to Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.
Fiorina suspends campaign
Former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina said Wednesday that she is suspending her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, following a lackluster showing in the New Hampshire primary.
Fiorina, 61, had pitched herself as an outsider who could bring a business mentality and global contacts to the White House – and who would not be afraid to attack the Democratic front-runner, Hillary Clinton.
But she was badly outspent, as she was unable to translate strong debate performances and enthusiastic crowds in early appearances in key primary states into sustained poll momentum – or into votes, coming in seventh in both the Iowa caucuses, with less than 2 percent of the vote, and in New Hampshire, with 4 percent.
Tough to convert into wins
MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. – Republican presidential contender John Kasich spent time and money winning over New Hampshire voters.
He came to next-to-vote South Carolina on Wednesday with a short supply of both.
“You don’t know me,” Kasich told people in Mount Pleasant, a suburb of Charleston. “So I guess I’ve got to go back to the beginning.”
The Ohio governor finished second in New Hampshire’s primary, well behind Trump but well ahead of others. That reflected Kasich’s singular focus on the state.
His all-in New Hampshire strategy also meant little attention to Nevada, the state that votes after South Carolina, or to most of the dozen states that hold March 1 contests.
“We don’t have to win everything,” said Kasich’s senior adviser, Tom Rath.
“What we need to do is win enough to keep us alive, which I think we absolutely can do.”
Associated Press & Washington Post
