Christie, Fiorina drop out of GOP presidential race

Their departures leave seven men remaining from an original 17-person Republican field.

|
Gretchen Ertl/REUTERS/File
Republican presidential candidate and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie addresses the crowd at his primary election night party in Nashua, New Hampshire, in this February 9, 2016, file photo.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former business executive Carly Fiorina are ending their campaigns for the 2016 Republican nomination, narrowing the field of rivals facing businessman Donald Trump for the right to compete in the Nov. 8 presidential election.

A senior aide confirmed to Reuters on Wednesday that Christie would pull out, a day after the combative Republican's sixth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary raised doubts about his viability as a candidate.

Fiorina, a former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, said in a Facebook post on Wednesday she would suspend her campaign. The only woman in the Republican field placed seventh in New Hampshire.

Trump's remaining opponents, most of them mainstream Republicans, will likely benefit from their departures, which leave seven Republicans from a field that once had 17 candidates.

Christie had poured much of his campaign's resources into New Hampshire and had considered a good showing there critical. He won only about 7 percent of votes on Tuesday, despite a pugnacious performance at a Republican debate last weekend.

Trump, a billionaire real estate mogul and former reality TV star, has dominated the Republican race and easily won the party primary in New Hampshire on Tuesday on a wave of voter anger at traditional US politicians.

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a democratic socialist, defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the state's Democratic contest.

The results testified to the sizable share of American voters upset over the slow economic recovery, immigration and America's place in the world and who are willing to shake up Washington.

Trump's victory showed pundits were wrong to think he would quickly self-destruct based on his penchant for insults and imprecise plans for the presidency. He had lost last week to Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas in the first nominating contest, the Iowa caucuses.

Trump's remaining rivals are still splintered.

Ohio's Republican governor, John Kasich, finished second in New Hampshire, followed by Cruz, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Christie, Fiorina drop out of GOP presidential race
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/USA-Update/2016/0210/Christie-Fiorina-drop-out-of-GOP-presidential-race
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe