Chris Christie’s exit from the race for the Republican presidential nomination has delivered a sudden jolt to the contest, changing the dynamic just days before the first votes are cast in Iowa and New Hampshire.
The former New Jersey governor was the most outspoken and fierce critic of frontrunner Donald Trump in the field — and his departure, which he announced on Wednesday, could give Nikki Haley more traction in the race.
Haley, the former US ambassador to the UN and candidate most closely aligned with Christie’s policies, has gained ground on Trump, moving into second place in some early voting states including Iowa and New Hampshire.
If, as expected, most of Christie’s voters shift to Haley, it should help deliver some additional momentum to her candidacy.
“This has become a two-person race with me and Donald Trump,” Haley told Fox News on Thursday morning. “And, you know, while everybody else wants to discount us, I’ll tell you, we keep moving and we’re moving for a reason.”
But overcoming Trump’s overwhelming lead remains a tall order for Haley — and even more so for Florida governor Ron DeSantis, the only other remaining credible candidate for the Republican nomination. The two exchanged insults in a televised debate in Iowa on Wednesday night, but the spectacle did little to change their standings in the race.
In Iowa, which will hold he first nominating contest on Monday, Trump has a 35 percentage point advantage over Haley, now in second place above DeSantis, according to the FiveThirtyEight polling average. In New Hampshire, which holds its primary on January 23, Trump has a 12 percentage point lead over Haley.
Christie had been facing pressure for weeks to exit the race in order to clear the way for Haley, and as he announced he was ending the campaign he pledged “to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again”.
But the pugnacious tough talker declined to endorse Haley on the night — and in fact Christie and his advisers delivered a withering, if inadvertently overheard, verdict on her chances of ever overcoming Trump. On a hot microphone ahead of the event to announce his exit from the race, Christie was overheard telling his advisers that she was going to be “smoked” by the former president.
“I don’t think she’s the modern day Joan of Arc that she’s being portrayed to be,” Wayne MacDonald, the Christie campaign’s New Hampshire chair who was part of that conservation, told the Financial Times.
“Those who would have Nikki Haley writing her acceptance speech for Milwaukee are way, way, way premature. There’s a long way to go and Donald Trump remains in a very strong position. And I frankly don’t see her overtaking him,” MacDonald added.
The Trump campaign issued a memo written by its pollster John McLaughlin saying Christie’s withdrawal might, if anything, be a “liability” for Haley.
“If his withdrawal was meant to help Nikki Haley, it will further polarise the primary to be a battle between the Trump conservatives and Haley’s DC establishment base,” it said.
A big source of acrimony between Christie and Haley has been the former New Jersey governor’s sense that he was being badgered into quitting the race by her.
MacDonald said Christie made “his own decision” to leave but also hinted at the feeling of grievance.
“You don’t bully a guy from New Jersey: there were attempts to bully him out of the race. And even last night on social media a number of Haley supporters were saying ‘We finally succeeded. We pressured him out’.”
David Tamasi, a Christie donor, is hardly rushing to throw his weight behind Haley either. “I want to see how that plays out. The former president continues to be a prohibitive favourite. And I think it’s now incumbent on the other candidates in the race to see how competitive they can make it both in Iowa and then in New Hampshire.”
Haley has reacted to the lack of an endorsement — as well as the disparaging comments from Christie — with aplomb. “It’s not a surprise. These fellas have been talking like that from the beginning,” she told Fox News.
But Christie’s deeper criticism of Haley and the other Trump rivals may be harder to shake: his accusation that they have been too meek in criticising the former president for fear of angering his supporters.
Christie often harks back to the moment when Haley and DeSantis put their hands up during a Republican debate last year when asked if they would support Trump if he won he nomination — even if he were convicted in court.
“Anyone who is unwilling to say he is unfit to be president of the United States is unfit to be president of the United States,” Christie said during his farewell event on Wednesday. “I would rather lose by telling the truth than lie in order to win.”
The most ardent anti-Trump Republicans cheered Christie as he left the race, saying his presence in the field served the vital purpose of frontally challenging the former president.
“Right up until the end, Christie — that deeply flawed, infuriating, exasperating, irritating man — was a magnificent beast,” Charlie Sykes, a former conservative talk show host, wrote on The Bulwark website, where he is editor-at-large.
But Trump and his allies were deeply dismissive of Christie’s role in the Republican race. “Chris Christie was a guy without a constituency,” Ohio senator JD Vance told Fox News.
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