Chris Christie Really Only Beat Rick Santorum in Iowa
Republican presidential candidate, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks during a town hall at Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016.
John Kasich phoned in his Iowa campaign. Literally.
The Ohio governor and presidential candidate held three “tele-town halls” in Iowa, where he talked with voters over the phone. At one point, he flew into Iowa to hold one rally, which The Des Moines Register called “unusual” and said he “alternately complimented and playfully antagonized the people who had come to listen to him speak.”
Kasich has concentrated most of his campaigning in New Hampshire, where according to polls he’s in a race for second place. New York Times politics writer tweeted Kasich ignored Iowa.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also focused on New Hampshire, but he did not ignore Iowa. He was there for all or part of 42 days, costing New Jersey taxpayers millions. Christie first visited the state back in 2010, and famously vetoed a symbolic pig crate ban in 2014 in order to appease Iowa voters. On Sunday night, he campaigned with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.
His campaign manager said Kasich, who had already left the state, was making the wrong choice. “You fight for every vote,” Christie’s campaign manager, Mike DuHaime, told the Washington Post. “I know John Kasich decided to leave, and that’s fine, that’s their strategy. But you have to respect the process.” Christie told Good Morning America he wouldn’t win, but he’d do well: “What I’ve wanted all along is to come out of Iowa as the number one governor. Polls show that I will be the number one governor.”
Whoops.
Christie was not the top governor. He did not get any delegates. He finished with 3,284 votes — 10th place. The only candidates he bested were former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum (1,783 votes) and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore (who got just 12 votes). He also bested “Others,” which got 119 votes. Christie finished behind the two top governors in the race, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (6th) and Ohio’s Kasich (8th). He finished behind former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who found his 9th-place finish so embarrassing he dropped out of the race.
Christie is not dropping out. Despite predicting he’d finish as the top governor, Christie said he “met expectations” after his 10th place finish. “I am pleased to announce that I performed exactly as I expected in Iowa,” Christie told reporters. “We are happy to say we have met expectations in Iowa and we’re now moving on to New Hampshire.”
So what happened? Matt Katz, the longtime Christie reporter who recently released a book on the man, wrote an article today titled “Chris Christie Ran For President and All New Jersey Got Was a Pig Crate Ban Veto.” He says Christie was pushed out of the conversation by another man with New Jersey ties:
Donald Trump, though, looms as the candidate who exacted the most long-term damage. A CNN entrance poll of caucus-goers showed that Trump won the votes of those who wanted someone who “tells it like it is.”
Christie’s campaign slogan is Telling it like it is.
The New Hampshire primary is next Tuesday. Polls place him squarely in sixth. He’s behind Bush and Kasich there, too, but at least he doesn’t have to worry about Huckabee this time. What this means: There could be just a week left in the Chris Christie presidential campaign.
Follow @dhm on Twitter.