Vivek Ramaswamy and Chris Christie face renewed pressure to ‘drop out now’

At the fourth GOP primary debate Wednesday, it took about 17 minutes before former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was able to get a word in.

“I’m usually not someone who gets missed,” Christie quipped after being overshadowed by his higher-polling counterparts.

SENATE UKRAINE BRIEFING DESCENDS INTO CHAOS AHEAD OF MAJOR VOTE ON AID

The admission that he was getting ignored reflected the sentiment of some Republicans who are urging the GOP primary presidential candidates polling under 10% nationally to end their campaigns ahead of the Iowa caucuses. The argument is the smaller field would give Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley a better chance to compete with former President Donald Trump, who is still leading by double-digits in the race.

In the GOP primary race, former President Donald Trump leads at 61%, DeSantis is at 13.5%, and Haley is at 10.3%, according to the RealClearPolitics average of polls. That same average found entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at a little under 5%, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 2.5%, and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson hovering at less than 1%.

With just a little over a month to go until the Iowa caucuses, there are growing fears that none of the five candidates still challenging Trump will be able to cut into his lead after multiple debates and months of campaigning. Some anti-Trump GOP donors and strategists are pressuring candidates who don’t appear to have a path to victory to throw in the towel and consolidate their support behind an opponent who could have a better chance of decreasing Trump’s lead.

“Candidates like Christie, Hutchinson, and Ramaswamy need to follow the lead of Doug Burgum, Tim Scott, and Mike Pence and formally end their campaigns,” said a Republican consultant, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect candidly on the situation. “This feels like a repeat of 2016 all over again where Trump benefited from such a large field.”

“These candidates need to drop out now, not after the Iowa caucuses, not after the New Hampshire primary or South Carolina primary, but right the heck now,” the person said.

GOP political consultant Doug Heye, a former communications director for the Republican National Committee, said the early primary state results could look very different if some of these candidates opted to drop out.

“It does matter depending on where their support goes,” Heye explained. “For Vivek, that may just mostly go to Trump. More important would be, you know, none of the Christie vote goes to Trump. So where does it go?”

Christie may have offered some clues on Wednesday when he defended Haley amid criticism of her foreign policy background from Ramaswamy.

“Look, if you want to disagree on issues, that’s fine. And Nikki and I disagree on some issues, but I’ll tell you this, I’ve known her for 12 years, which is longer than [Ramaswamy] even starting to vote in the Republican primary,” Christie said.

“This is a smart, accomplished woman. You should stop insulting her,” he added.

Heye said he believes Haley could be the GOP’s only real shot at challenging Trump.

“Of the candidates that aren’t Trump, Haley’s in the best position. DeSantis has been a disappointment, and then the other two are there for different reasons. Christie is there to pop Donald Trump’s balloon, and Vivek wants to be famous,” he said.

Ramaswamy is now admitting to voters on the campaign trail that there’s a chance he may not be successful in the primary.

“I get a lot of people that say, ‘Hey, I like what you’re saying. If you don’t do it this time, do it in the future.’ That’s fine for me. I don’t think our country has that kind of timeline,” he told a group of voters at a Pizza Ranch in Carroll, Iowa, at the end of November, according to reporting from NBC News.

The entrepreneur still has sidestepped questions about whether he would consider joining Trump’s ticket and continues to maintain he will be successful in the Iowa caucuses while also adding a caveat.

“If, for whatever reason, I am not successful this spring in winning the Republican nomination, I will continue in my advocacy on this issue until we have achieved our goal,” he said at a different event in November.

“I don’t think anyone thinks they are going to have any influence on Vivek. He really only cares about himself,” said a different Republican consultant, who requested anonymity. “The hope is that Christie will soon step aside. Whether he does that before New Hampshire is hard to tell.”

But, it doesn’t appear Christie has any intention of winding down his campaign. He’s invested most of his time and resources in New Hampshire, where independent voters can participate in the primary. The former New Jersey governor has said if he is unable to secure a major victory in the state, then he will reconsider his promise to keep his campaign going until July, when the Republican National Convention takes place.

Christie’s advisers are emphasizing that the same case could be made for any of the candidates polling behind Trump since none have been able to break 20% in recent polling.

“Whatever case people make to you about Christie, the other two have no path either,” said Mike DuHaime, one of Christie’s top strategists, in an interview with the New York Times, referring to both DeSantis and Haley. “Should everybody just drop out, or should we try to beat the guy?”

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Hutchinson, who participated in the first debate, has failed to qualify for any subsequent ones. He said in September his goal was to increase his polling numbers to 4% by Thanksgiving. That didn’t happen, but the former two-term Arkansas governor has said voters should have a variety of choices during the Iowa caucuses.

“We’re planning the campaign for Jan. 15 and leading up to that,” Hutchinson said in an interview with NBC News last month.