Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, the pro-life New Jersey governor, will formally suspend his presidential campaign today after a poor showing last night in the New Hampshire primary. Due to the finish in the bottom of the pack and the fact that it is unlikely he would have enough polling to qualify for Saturday night’s debate, FOX News and CBS have reported that Christie will bow out.
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NEW: Chris Christie expected to formally suspend his presidential campaign as early as today, @ABC News has learned pic.twitter.com/wdHfW9JUEA
— ABC News (@ABC) February 10, 2016
Breaking News: @ChrisChristie is suspending his campaign. pic.twitter.com/dsERpbwO76 — FOX Business (@FoxBusiness) February 10, 2016
UPDATE: “After lengthy call with national donors, @ChrisChristie offers thanks and decides to end presidential campaign,” CBS reports.
Christie received 8% of the vote among GOP primary voters, nearly 30 points behind Donald Trump. Christie said Monday night following the primary that he would travel home to New Jersey instead of traveling to South Carolina to campaign.
“Mary Pat and I spoke tonight and we’ve decided to go home to New Jersey tomorrow and we’re going to take a deep breath and see what the results are tonight,” Christie said . “By tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon we should know.”
Christie is pro-life and has a strong record as New jersey’s governor of vetoing taxpayer funding for the Planned Parenthood abortion business multiple times. But pro-life voters were upset by what he had to say about fellow presidential hopeful Marco Rubio. Christie thought the Florida senator is just too pro-life on abortion for the voters of New Hampshire.
The governor also drew criticism for defending abortions on unborn children in cases of rape or incest. Although Christie opposes abortions in every other situation, he quickly came under fire from pro-life advocates after he referred to such abortions as “self-defense.”
Still Christie touted his pro-life views saying that “thousands and thousands of unborn children are murdered in the womb.”
