But Christie declined, saying that he didn’t feel like he was ready. The New Jersey governor held a meeting with his campaign staff at 4pm this afternoon to thank them and announce the news, a spokesperson to the campaign confirms to ABC News.
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“And so today, I leave the race without an ounce of regret”.
“I’m going to be much more boisterous”, he said on Fox TV.
US Republican presidential candidate John Kasich, who has struggled to generate enthusiasm for his campaign, made a surprise showing on Google Trends on Tuesday in the run-up to New Hampshire’s primary. And countless others were mired in traffic jams after access lanes from the town of Fort Lee to the George Washington Bridge were closed in an act of political retribution.
Once seen as a Republican superstar, Christie’s reputation was badly damaged by the “Bridgegate” scandal, in which aides purposely created traffic jams to punish a local mayor who chose not to endorse the governor’s reelection.
Here’s what to watch for Wednesday, as the race heads south and west – perhaps with a smaller cast of characters.
“By the force of his personality and his own wit and his ability, he forced himself back into this race”.
“We don’t have to win everything”, said Kasich’s senior adviser, Tom Rath. With a victory in Iowa and third-place finish in New Hampshire under his belt, Cruz badly wants a strong performance in this conservative state and is particularly eager to keep Rubio’s momentum in check.
“We’re really looking forward to the opportunity to compete [for the votes of] Latinos and African Americans”, said Ted Devine, who previously worked on the campaigns of Democrats Al Gore, John Kerry, and Michael Dukakis. That dissatisfaction is indeed widespread, including about half the New Hampshire Republican electorate. On the Democratic side, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders resoundingly defeated former secretary of state Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire as voters make the anti-establishment theme on both sides of the aisle.
Christie’s campaign was troubled from the beginning.
Which Donald Trump will show up? She confirmed Cruz will continue to highlight Trump’s past, an allusion to his public support for abortion rights and same-sex marriage.
Since Iowa began holding the first-in-the-nation caucus in 1976, no Republican has finished second there and first in New Hampshire and failed to win the nomination.
Katon Dawson, the former chairman of the South Carolina GOP, said he expects the debate to have more of an impact on his state’s voters than the results in either Iowa or New Hampshire. The governor was encouraged after he had gotten lots of attention for besting Florida Sen.
His enduring mark on the race’s final days came with his blistering attacks of Marco Rubio, who as late as this weekend was considered the GOP establishment’s last best hope to overtake Donald Trump. “This is going to be incredibly close”, Christie told his supporters at a campaign headquarters in Bedford, N.H.
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Rubio campaign manager, Terry Sullivan, told the AP the Republican primary contest could “easily extend to May – “or the convention”. Last week, Christie assailed Rubio as a “boy in the bubble” and a political lightweight without the heft required for the Oval Office. Cruz, for example, is on the air in the Palmetto State with multiple attack ads, including a new spot that accuses Trump of a “pattern of sleaze”.
