Pressure Mounts on Chris Christie to Drop Out as Nikki Haley Closes Gap With Trump
A growing number of political observers are arguing that if Chris Christie really wants to stop Donald Trump, he’ll stand down and back Nikki Haley’s challenge of the former president for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Throughout the 2024 primary, Christie has established himself as the most ardently anti-Trump Republican candidate, often chastising his rivals for refusing to call out the former president as harshly as he has. Despite these efforts, however, Christie remains far behind Trump in the polls, and he failed to reach the requirements to qualify for CNN’s upcoming GOP debate with Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Trump will be counterprogramming the debate by sitting for an interview with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier.
Haley has been Trump’s closest polling competitor in recent weeks, with recent studies indicating that her surge is closing the gap between herself and the frontrunner. A poll from USA TODAY, Boston Globe and Suffolk University found that Trump is still comfortably ahead of Haley, but his 46 percent lead to Haley’s 26 is a slip from his previous numbers. Christie, meanwhile, scored 12 percent among the poll participants.
But another new poll tells a different story. In the latest CNN/University of New Hampshire poll, the ex-president is down to 39 percent while Haley managed to jump up to 32 percent — putting Trump’s lead in the single digits. Christie again holds 12 percent of the vote, putting him in third place.
“Haley would likely move even closer to Trump if former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were to withdraw, as two-thirds of Christie’s supporters select Haley as their second choice,” the UNH survey center wrote. “Undeclared voters who plan to vote in the Republican primary favor Haley over Trump by more than two to one, while Trump holds a large lead among registered Republicans.”
With all of this being said, a number of people have taken to X (formerly Twitter), in order to look at the current primary math, and to agree that Haley has a much better chance of overtaking Trump if Christie dropped out and she absorbed all of his supporters.
If @ChrisChristie drops out, Haley is going to win.
If his ego gets the better of him, he may be the reason Trump sweeps the early states. https://t.co/lAGlfcczIy
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) January 9, 2024
For the first time I can recall: Haley + Christie > Trump in New Hampshire. https://t.co/eM43Uzp9xu
— Josh Kraushaar (@JoshKraushaar) January 9, 2024
“Those behind Christie break solidly toward Haley, with 65% saying they would support her were Christie not in the race” https://t.co/tYyLej4DJ7
— Kevin Madden (@KevinMaddenDC) January 9, 2024
One thing I’m darkly coming to enjoy about the 2024 race is that Christie is fully aware that dropping out could give Haley NH and he is dead set determined to deny it to her on “LOL nothing matters except my ego” grounds. I love his naked cynicism. https://t.co/CJiScYk59R
— Jeff Blehar is *BOX OFFICE POISON* (@EsotericCD) January 9, 2024
How will history judge Christie? Will he be the man whose pride, ego and vanity leads to a Trump victory and the destruction of the Republican Party? Or will Christie be praised as the great consolidator who magnanimously teamed up with Haley for the good of the country?
— Amanda Stewart Sprowls (@SprowlsAmanda) January 9, 2024
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