Jan. 10 (UPI) — Saying he doesn’t see a pathway to securing the GOP nomination for president, former N.J. Gov. Chris Christie told media and supporters Wednesday that he is ending his campaign.
Christie, 61, didn’t endorse anyone, but he assured those in attendance that he won’t support former President Donald Trump‘s bid for a second term in office.
“I’m going to make sure that in no way do I enable Donald Trump to ever be president of the United States again,” he said when announcing his exit from the political race.
The New Hampshire GOP primary is on Jan. 23 to help decide who will be the Republican Party’s candidate for president during this year’s general election on Nov. 5.
Trump currently leads GOP hopefuls in polling for the New Hampshire primary, but Christie’s exit might change that.
Trump leads former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley by 13.7 points with a cumulative total of 43% to Haley’s 29.3% among three polls, according to Real Clear Politics. Christie was polling a distant third with a cumulative total of 12%, which is ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, 6.3%, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, 5%.
Christie recently missed the deadline to qualify for Maine’s March 5 GOP primary after he could not muster at least 2,000 signatures from Maine voters.
Christie served as New Jersey‘s governor from 2010 to 2018 and was a U.S. attorney for the state from 2002 to 2008.
