New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has ended his presidential bid, his campaign announced to NBC News.
Campaign spokeswoman Samantha Smith said Christie shared his decision with staff at his campaign headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, late Wednesday afternoon, and was calling donors and other supporters. He also released a statement to supporters later in the afternoon.
"Today, I leave the race without an ounce of regret," Christie said in a statement Wednesday. "I’m so proud of the campaign we ran, the people that ran it with me and all those who gave us their support and confidence along the way."
The suspension of the campaign comes a day after Christie's sixth-place finish in the New Hampshire primary. The governor returned to the Garden State Tuesday night after taking less than 8 percent of the vote, rather than continuing onto South Carolina, which holds the next primary election.
Christie finished behind Donald Trump, John Kasich, Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush. He finished ahead of former HP executive Carly Fiorina, who also dropped out of the race Wednesday.
Christie told supporters on Tuesday night he was going to head home and "take a deep breath", await the final tally of results and decide what to do next. He added he was leaving New Hampshire "without an ounce of regret.
Christie had been banking on a strong finish in New Hampshire and spent more than 70 days campaigning in the state, holding well-received town halls and meet-and-greets.
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But Tuesday's result appeared to be the final blow for a candidate whose campaign, at points, saw glimmers of hope, but had trouble from the get-go raising money and building support in a crowded Republican field dominated by another brash East Coaster, businessman Donald Trump.
While Trump has posed a challenge to the entire Republican field, his dominance seemed especially damaging to Christie, who had branded himself the "telling it like it is" candidate.
He'll return home to finish his second term as governor of New Jersey, where he faces a slew of unsolved problems and rock-bottom approval ratings from residents who, polls show, feel he neglected the state to pursue his national ambitions.
Christie racked up a long list of notable endorsements from state legislative leaders in New Hampshire. At the end of 2015, he appeared to be breaking into the top tier after a video of him discussing a friend's struggle with drug addiction went viral.
The terrorist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino in particular played to Christie's advantage, allowing him to talk about his previous job as a U.S. attorney and play up his law-and-order credentials. And a commanding performance during the last GOP debate before the New Hampshire primary earned him strong reviews.
But with a field filled with numerous other options, including current and former governors and senators, Christie never consolidated support, despite being praised by both fans and rivals as one of the Republican Party's best communicators.
Christie may have missed a better chance at the White House four year ago, when he was begged by some of his party's most powerful statesmen and donors to run in 2012. But Christie declined, saying that he didn't feel like he was ready.
Christie's aggressive political team worked to rack up endorsements and wide victory margins in his re-election bid for governor as a springboard for 2016. At the same time, his aides took their game of doling out political favors and punishments too far, leading to one of the most dumbfounding political scandals in recent memory, in which aides purposely created traffic jams in the town of Fort Lee to punish the mayor, who chose not to endorse Christie's re-election.
While Christie first laughed off the suggestion that his team had anything to do with the plot, the denials quickly unraveled following the release of emails, including one from a top aide that read, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee."
Three people have been indicted in the scheme, including a former high school classmate of the governor who has pleaded guilty and is working with federal prosecutors. The governor himself was never implicated in the scheme, however.
Christie will join the list of Republican who have left the race, including South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry.
