Chris Christie ends 2024 presidential campaign

CNN —

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Wednesday that he is ending his campaign for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, marking the exit of the most outspoken critic of former President Donald Trump in the GOP primary.

“It is clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination, which is why I’m suspending my campaign tonight for President of the United States,” he said at a town hall in Windham, New Hampshire, just 10 days before the first-in-the-nation primary. He called it the “right thing for me to do” and promised that he would never “enable Donald Trump to become, to ever be president of the United States again.”

Christie’s decision comes on the heels of a new batch of disappointing poll numbers, especially in New Hampshire, where he hoped a less conservative electorate would coalesce around his sharp opposition to Trump, whom he described as “devoid of character.”

Left - WATERLOO, IOWA - DECEMBER 19: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he wraps up a campaign event on December 19, 2023 in Waterloo, Iowa. Iowa Republicans will be the first to select their party's nomination for the 2024 presidential race, when they go to caucus on January 15, 2024. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Right - US Republican presidential candidate and former US ambassador to the Unted Nations Nikki Haley speaks at a town hall meeting hosted by Fox News in Des Moines, Iowa, on January 8, 2024. (Photo by Christian MONTERROSA / AFP) (Photo by CHRISTIAN MONTERROSA/AFP via Getty Images)

CNN Poll: Haley trims Trump’s lead to single digits in New Hampshire

His departure could be a boon to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has pulled