New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former business executive Carly Fiorina drew the curtain of their presidential campaigns on Wednesday, reducing the field of candidates challenging the front-runner Donald Trump in the race for the 2016 Republican nomination.
Christie, 53, wrote on his Facebook that he was leaving the race “without an ounce of regret,” a day after he finished sixth in the Republican’s New Hampshire primary, after which doubts about his viability as a candidate rose up.
Fiorina, 61, a former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, also posted on her Facebook page that she would suspend her campaign. The only woman in the Republican race who was placed seventh in New Hampshire, one of a series of state-by-state nominating contests for the Nov. 8 election to takeover from the Democratic President Barack Obama.
The front-runner’s remaining opponents, most of them which are mainstream Republicans, the pulling out of this candidates will be a plus to the candidates, reduces the number of candidates from 17 to 7 candidates.
Trump confidently won the New Hampshire Republican primary by almost 20 points. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida who finished fifth-place, had earlier hoped to emerge as Trump’s main rival but after an amazing third-place showdown in Iowa last week, left Trump without a particular challenger among the tagged establishment candidates.
The Democratic side has less candidates with only two candidate but a more fierce battle, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a democratic socialist, defeated the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire primary hands down.
The victories in both parties by candidates considered outsiders, testified to the huge share of American voters not pleased over the slow economic recovery, immigration and America’s place in the world and who are willing to shake up Washington.
Trump, 69, a New York billionaire businessman, has a double count lead over conservative Senator Ted Cruz of Texas in opinion polls for the next Republican contest, the South Carolina primary on Feb. 20, according to a Real Clear Politics average of opinion polls.
