Chris Christie poses a major threat to Nikki Haley in New Hampshire

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie‘s quixotic quest to deny former President Donald Trump the GOP 2024 nomination could end up dragging down another primary rival — former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.

Christie has centered his campaign on two central components. The first is holding Trump accountable for his record while in office, and the second is winning the New Hampshire primary, or at least performing well enough to prove he has a viable campaign.

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But with a little over a month until the Jan. 23 New Hampshire, Christie severely lags behind Trump in New Hampshire. And his campaign could instead endanger Haley, whose campaign has surged in polls and recently won the coveted backing of Gov. Chris Sununu (R-NH).

Christie has a notable history of viciously taking down another presidential hopeful. During a Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire in February 2016, Christie repeatedly slammed Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) for a “memorized 30-second speech” as the senator attacked former President Barack Obama. “Let’s dispel once and for all with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing,” Rubio repeatedly said at the Feb. 6 debate.

The moment was arguably the beginning of the end of Rubio’s 2016 campaign, although the Florida senator rejected that claim in June. Rubio would finish fifth place in the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9, just three days after the debate, and after he had finished in third place during the Iowa caucuses.

Nearly seven years from that moment Christie has just enough support in New Hampshire to possibly threaten Haley’s campaign.

“I think the danger Christie poses to Haley is that he’s been consistently getting 9%, 10%, 11% in most surveys here,” said Christopher Galdieri, a political scientist at Saint Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire. “And that might not be the difference between Haley winning and losing, but it could be the difference between her being a very close second and a really distant second.”

A RealClearPolitics poll average of New Hampshire surveys shows Christie at 12.3% support behind Haley at 21.3% and Trump at 44.3%. Another CBS News/YouGov poll released on Sunday showed Christie at 10% among likely GOP New Hampshire primary voters, while Haley was at 29%, and Trump was at 44%.

Christie would get into a back-and-forth with CBS host Margaret Brennan over poll and Haley’s rising momentum. “It’s kind of just a foolish poll, with all due respect,” Christie said. “And the fact is that in the end, look, Gov. Haley got an endorsement this week that got her a lot of free media publicity, but it doesn’t change one simple fact. She won’t answer questions about Donald Trump. In fact, you know, she said just this week that he’s fit to be president.”

Three days earlier, his campaign would release an ad attacking both Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), the top two non-Trump candidates, for excoriating each other and avoiding Trump, the frontrunner. “There’s only one candidate trying to stop Trump. Chris Christie is the only one who can beat Trump because he’s the only one trying to beat Trump,” said a narrator.

In addition to going after Haley and DeSantis, Christie has also viciously attacked biotech Vivek Ramaswamy over his fluctuating foreign policy stances during the four GOP primary debates. But that hasn’t proven to harm Trump, whom Christie vehemently claims he wants to block from the nomination. It’s mostly soured the GOP base on Christie and dragged down his opponents.

Neither the Christie nor Haley campaigns responded to the Washington Examiner‘s request for comment.

Sean Van Anglen, a New Hampshire political consultant, cautioned that Christie’s campaign may not be a “complete spoiler” for Haley.
“There’s about 46% out there that haven’t made up their mind whatsoever. So I think if Gov. Sununu and Nikki Haley get that, I think there’ll be okay,” said Van Anglen. “But I think, at the same time, Christie not dropping out could be a little worrisome. I think it just makes the job a little bit harder than it should be. But I don’t think it will be a complete spoiler.”

New Hampshire is an open primary state, meaning voters do not have to be registered as a Republican to participate in the primary. The 2024 GOP candidates will have to battle to win over not just Republican voters but also the roughly 40% of independent voters in New Hampshire. The Sununu endorsement will likely endear Haley to independents who view the governor favorably.

Yet it has come at a cost to Christie. As Haley has begun to overtake DeSantis’s role as the chief Trump alternative candidate, Christie has faced growing calls to suspend his campaign. Ford O’Connell, a Florida-based GOP strategist, told the Washington Examiner that if Christie were to drop out, his supporters would likely vote for Haley, given his anti-Trump stance. But Trump’s lead will be a tough battle to overcome.

“I do think that if Chris Christie were to get out before New Hampshire, that might benefit her,” O’Connell said. “At the same time, though, this situation with the Colorado case is unifying for the GOP base.”

Colorado’s Supreme Court disqualified Trump from running for president and removed him from the state’s primary ballot, citing the 14th Amendment on Tuesday evening. The Supreme Court has until Jan. 5 to decide whether it will take up the case and issue a ruling. If the high court doesn’t rule, Trump could still remain on the ballot.

“That’s 10 days before Iowa. That’s going drive those people bonkers,” O’Connell said. “And Christie, he’s got no signs of going anywhere. I mean he is not trying to leave the race … he says his mission is to wound Trump. But I mean, he’s starting to wound other candidates, too.”

The ruling has forced Trump’s opponents to come to his aid in the last few weeks before the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary eight days later. But they will have at least two more large-scale moments to speak to the GOP base. CNN is hosting a Jan. 10 debate in Iowa, and ABC News is hosting a debate on Jan. 18 in New Hampshire. (CNN has also said it is hosting a Jan. 21 debate.) Christie could presumably have one more chance to take on Haley before voters decide which candidate they prefer during the Granite State primary.

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“If he makes the stage here, if he’s still in the race when there’s the debate here … I think for him the pressure will be on because that’ll be basically his last shot before for a big TV audience. And it’s really tough for me to see him passing that up,” said Galdieri.

Van Anglen, the New Hampshire consultant, said ultimately, Haley will have to earn the votes she needs to defeat Christie and possibly take on Trump.” I would like to see Christie drop out. I think it would solve a lot of headaches that could come up in the next couple of weeks,” he said. “But if he doesn’t at the same time, you just gotta hit the pavement.”