Chris Christie to drop his presidential bid

Chris Christie is ending his longshot presidential campaign in what could be a major boost to Nikki Haley’s chances in New Hampshire, according to two people familiar with the decision.

The former New Jersey governor has been the GOP field’s most vocal critic of frontrunner Donald Trump and had staked his campaign on the first primary state.

But his path there narrowed as Haley started surging in polls on the heels of several strong debate performances and with the backing of popular GOP Gov. Chris Sununu, who also opposes Trump.

Pressure had been rising on Christie, who draws from a similar pool of more moderate Republicans and independents as Haley, to drop out before the Jan. 23 primary to avoid splitting the anti-Trump vote. New Hampshire is the only early state where Trump polls under 50 percent on average — and where Haley has come within striking distance of him in some surveys.

Christie entered the presidential race in June with the almost single-minded mission of destroying Trump. But with Trump refusing to participate in the presidential primary debates, Christie has been unable to take on the former president directly.

Attendees at Christie’s town halls have for weeks been prodding him to step aside. A member of Christie’s New Hampshire steering committee, prominent restaurateur Tom Boucher, flipped to Haley’s campaign at the start of the year. And Sununu, a longtime friend of Christie’s, went so far as to say on a New Hampshire radio show on Tuesday that casting a ballot for him would be a “wasted vote.”

Christie had been adamant that he would not drop out before voting began, saying so on the campaign trail and in a direct-to-camera television ad that is part of the seven-figure ad blitz his campaign has rolled out in the run-up to the primary.

“I would be happy to get out of the way for someone who is actually running against Donald Trump,” Christie said at a town hall in Rochester on Tuesday, arguing that his opponents — namely Haley — are not.

And yet, Christie’s campaign had been urging his supporters to show up in Windham on Wednesday for what was being billed as a highly important speech, even as his advisers downplayed the event’s significance to reporters.

Christie’s exit now paves the way for Haley to keep gaining on Trump. Sixty-five percent of Christie’s backers in a UNH/CNN survey released Tuesday found that Christie's voters would break for Haley if Christie wasn’t in the race. Even attracting some of that support would be a potentially significant boost for the former South Carolina governor.