Christie drops out of GOP race

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has suspended his campaign for the White House after failing to break out of a crowded pack of candidates dominated by Donald Trump.

Christie announced the move Wednesday afternoon in a meeting with his staff, according to a person close to the campaign.

Christie never expected to do well in the Iowa caucuses, but the second-term governor had staked his White House ambitions on a strong showing in New Hampshire, spending more than 70 days on the trail there. But he finished a disappointing sixth and last night announced he would scrap a scheduled trip to South Carolina and return to New Jersey to reassess.

“I have both won elections that I was supposed to lose and I’ve lost elections I was supposed to win,” Christie said Tuesday. “It is both the magic and the mystery of politics that you never quite know when which is going to happen, even when you think you do.”

Christie’s hopes in New Hampshire were buoyed after a strong performance in Saturday’s debate, in which he mocked and mauled Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for repeating a scripted attack line against President Obama.

“There it is,” Christie said, pouncing when Rubio kept repeating the stock line. “There it is, the memorized 25-second speech.” Since then, Democrats have sent people in robot suits to Rubio events.

But while the attack appears to have severely damaged Rubio, who finished fifth, it failed to boost Christie.

Four years ago, Christie was seen as a rising star in the Republican Party and was courted by donors and strategists who thought he would be a strong challenger to Obama. But his brand took a hit after the bizarre Bridgegate scandal in September 2013, when aides to the governor ordered the closure of an access lane to the George Washington Bridge, in an episode of apparent political retaliation against a Democratic mayor who wouldn’t endorse him.

Christie also had trouble with many conservatives who loathed Obama and could never forgive the governor for his friendly greeting of the president after Hurricane Sandy -- a few days before the 2012 election.

By the time he entered the race, Christie was overshadowed by the fundraising juggernaut of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, and then by Trump, who managed to out-do Christie’s own brand of frank pugnacity.

“The reality is that Trump out-Christied Christie, with his bombastic speech and his tell-it-like-it-is behavior,” said Brigid Callahan Harrison, a political science professor at Montclair State University.

“For voters among whom that had some appeal, there was another, celebrity candidate to do that.”

Christie now faces two years left in his term in a state with deep financial problems. To make things harder, he no longer can count on any political leverage with Democratic legislators. The governor’s approval rating in the state is around 33%, half of what it was at his peak, Harrison said.