A rising contingent of political watchers contend that Chris Christie must step aside and support Nikki Haley’s challenge to the former president for the Republican candidacy in 2024 if he truly wishes to stop Donald Trump.
As the most fervently anti-Trump Republican contender throughout the 2024 race, Christie has frequently criticized his competitors for not criticizing the outgoing president with the same ferocity.
Christie, meanwhile, is still well behind Trump in the polls and could not meet the necessary thresholds to be included in CNN’s forthcoming GOP debate including Haley and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. In an attempt to derail the discussion, Trump has agreed to an interview with Martha MacCallum and Bret Baier of Fox News.
Nikki Haley has been Trump’s closest polling rival in recent weeks, and new research suggests that her surge is narrowing the difference between the two of them. According to a poll conducted by Suffolk University, the Boston Globe, and USA TODAY, Trump is still comfortably ahead of Haley, but his lead has shrunk from his prior results, with 46 percent to 26 percent. Christie, on the other hand, received a 12 percent vote from the respondents.
However, the results of a recent poll are different. In the most recent CNN/University of New Hampshire survey, Trump’s lead is in the single digits as the former president is down to 39% while Haley is up to 32%. Christie is in third position with 12 percent of the vote once more.
“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.
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
