Who will make the cut? GOP debate criteria announced

A big blow to Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign following a poor showing in the New Hampshire primary.

“We’ve decided that we’re going to go home to New Jersey tomorrow and we’re going to take a deep breath and see what the final results are tonight because that matters”, Christie told supporters on Tuesday night. An as-yet-incomplete vote tally shows him trailing Trump, John Kasich, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio.

Christie was elected in 2009 as New Jersey governor and will return to that state to finish his second term. “That message was heard by a lot of folks and it was stood for by a lot of folks here in New Hampshire, just not enough”.

He said early in the day that he had no intention of suspending his campaign even if he did poorly in New Hampshire.

The governor congratulated Donald Trump for his victory, stopping some supporters when they booed the front-runner.

Christie will be hard-pressed to justify to donors and other supporters he has a path forward, said Christopher Galdieri, an assistant professor in the Department of Politics at Saint Anselm College near Manchester, N.H. Christie had a strong showing at the last debate, which may not be reflected in the polls.

“Because so many New Hampshire residents came out today, it’s going to take a while to count these votes”.

The governor said he planned to wait out the full results of the New Hampshire primary before deciding whether to continue his 2016 bid for the Republican nomination.

But that was only the warm-up act, as he thrashed Rubio thoroughly in the New Hampshire debate on Saturday before the election.

Place among the top 5 candidates in an average of national and South Carolina Republican presidential polls conducted over a four-week period starting on January 15th and recognized by CBS News; and receive a minimum of 3% in the Iowa, New Hampshire results or the South Carolina or national polls. Voting looms ahead in Nevada and SC, two states where it’s not clear that he will fare much better.