Month: December 2023

March 12, 2023: Donald Trump should quit the race for the Republican nomination in 2024 if he is indicted in New York over a hush money payment to a porn star during his victorious run in 2016, a prospective rival said. (The Guardian)

“It doesn’t mean that he’s guilty of it or he should be charged,” said Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas. “But it’s just such a distraction that would be unnecessary for somebody who’s seeking the highest office in the land.”

Hutchinson has not declared a run. Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor, remains Trump’s only declared opponent from the Republican mainstream. The governor of Florida, Ron DeSantis, is Trump’s only serious challenger in polling…

April 4, 2023: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) who announced that he’s running for president in 2024, said former President Trump should drop out of the race now that he’s been indicted on criminal charges. (The Hill)

“I mean, first of all, the office is more important than any individual person. And so for the sake of the office of the presidency, I do think that’s too much of a sideshow and distraction and he needs to be able to concentrate on his due process and there is a presumption of innocence,” Hutchinson said in an interview aired Sunday with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl.

Hutchinson had said earlier that Trump should drop out if he was indicted, and shared a statement after news of the indictment generated headlines saying Trump should not become president again. Asked by Karl in the new interview whether he thinks Trump should now step away, Hutchinson says “I do.”…

…Hutchinson announced during the interview that he’ll seek the Republican nomination for president in 2024. Trump announced just after the November midterms and is now the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges…

April 26, 2023: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson officially launched his campaign for the GOP presidential nomination on Wednesday. (NBC News)

Here’s where he stands on some top issues:

Abortion

Hutchinson signed a near-total abortion ban into law in 2021, which included an exception for the life of the mother. Hutchinson said at the time that he would have preferred the ban also include exceptions for rape and incest.

After the Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision last year, ending the federal right to an abortion, Hutchinson said the court’s decision “will save lives.”

But he does not support a federal ban on abortion, instead of arguing that policies dictating abortion access and restrictions should be decided at state level…

Entitlements

“We have got to protect Social Security and Medicare,” Hutchinson recently told PBS NewsHour. He added that he does not support raising the retirement age to address the looming shortfalls facing those entitlement programs.

As governor, Hutchinson also championed adding a work requirement for the state’s Medicaid expansion.

“We want them to have the health care coverage,” Hutchinson told NPR in 2019.

“But we also want to help them get to work and to show them where the path is so that they can have an income,” he later added…

Transgender issues

As governor, Hutchinson had a mixed record on transgender issues. He vetoed a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, criticizing the measure as “vast government overreach.”…

…He also signed a measure barring transgender women and girls competing in school sports that aligned with their gender identity…

July 17, 2023: Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said in an interview on Monday that the reason he was jeered at a political event was due to the “stranglehold” former President Trump has on his party. (The Hill)

Hutchinson, who announced his candidacy in April, was greeted by boos and chants of “Trump” when he appeared on stage to speak at the Turning Point Action Conference in West Palm Beach, Fla., on Sunday.

“Well, its a different day in time, and that reflects Trump’s stranglehold a certain element of the party,” Hutchinson told host Leland Vittert on NewsNation’s “The Hill”. “But what you saw in that audience were thousands of young people who I was speaking to, and they were listening.”

He added that “It’s important for me to speak my message about where this country needs to go, and different policies for what President Biden is bringing, from energy to too much federal spending, so I gave that message, and that’s important for me to be there”…

August 1, 2023: GOP presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Friday he believes he will be able to qualify for the next Republican primary debate, despite doubters. (The Hill)

“You know that many people didn’t think I was gonna make the last debate stage, and I heard your prognosticators already say you don’t think we’re gonna make the next one at the Reagan Library,” he told NBC “Meet the Press” anchor Chuck Todd on Friday. “So I intend to prove it all wrong. I expect to be there.”

The next Republican debate will take place on Sept. 27, at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Southern California.

In August, the Republican National Committee (RNC) released the criteria the GOP hopefuls must meet in order to qualify for the second debate – slightly more stringent than the first debate.

Candidates will need to have a minimum of 50,000 unique donors, including 200 donors in 20 states or more each, according to the RNC. They will also need to poll at a minimum of 3 percent in two national surveys or poll at 3 percent in one national poll and two polls conducted in two early states – including Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

Hutchinson currently sits at an average of 0.7 percent in national polls among the Republican candidates, according to FiveThirtyEight. That average is a far cry from the leader of the Republican pack, former President Trump, who has a polling average of 50.3 percent…

October 28, 2023: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is taking over some of his own presidential campaign’s staffing duties after agreeing to part ways with his campaign manager, Rob Burgess. (NBC News)

Hutchinson said he plans to handle all media inquiries directly until he either hires a replacement for Burgess, who is leaving after Oct. 31, or designates an existing member of his staff to handle those responsibilities.

“I thought we were all together on it [the campaign].” Hutchinson said. “So that’s really, there’s nothing more to be said there other than it was by mutual agreement. And clearly, I’m continuing with the campaign, excited about it, and we go from here.”

…He added that he and Burgess mutually agreed on the campaign manager’s departure. The shakeup comes after Hutchinson failed to qualify for the second Republican presidential primary debate in September, and with the deadline bearing down to meet the requirements for the third debate on Nov. 8, in Miami…

November 1, 2023: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has brought on a new presidential campaign manager, one day after parting ways with his previous top staffer. (NBC News)

Williams served as Hutichson’s chief of staff from 2016 to 2023 while he was governor.

“She’s been with me from the U.S. Congress, which was 20 years ago, to DEA, Homeland Security and then as governor, of course, in my key role as my chief of staff, and so she’s a trusted ally,” Hutchinson said of Williams. “She knows how I like things to operate, and I’m just delighted that she’s on board. And she’s going to bring our fighting team together for the sprint ahead.”

The staffing change comes as Hutchinson decided not to file for the primary ballot in South Carolina, citing the tough competition there between former President Donald Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.

“As a practical matter, there’s minimal chance that I would have to win the entire state of South Carolina. And so, if you, if you can’t win it, then let’s maximize the opportunity for non-Trump delegates,” Hutchison told NBC News…

…Hutchinson says he hopes his decision will maximize the opportunity to spread out delegates addled to a more competitive Super Tuesday…

…However, Hutchinson said he still plans to file for the ballot in Florida despite two more home-state favorites, Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis, going up against each other there.

November 11, 2023: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) pushed back against the suggestion that he might end his 2024 GOP presidential bid after failing to qualify for the third GOP primary debate. (The Hill)

Hutchinson was asked by CNN’s Jim Acosta about arguments made that the GOP needs to coalesce around an “anti-Trump or non-Trump candidate” and asked if it was “time” for Hutchinson to drop out of the race to “make that possible.” The former Arkansas governor responded that he doesn’t believe that to be the case.

“I think most people that make the case, ‘We need to narrow the field,’ they’re talking about … after the first four states, that’s the case that Mitt Romney made,” Hutchinson said.

“And there’ll be a time down the road that consolidation will happen, but the voters… have an opportunity to express themselves, and you’re gonna see a lot of changes,” he continued.

Hutchinson, along with Doug Burgum, failed to meet the Republican National Committee’s debate qualifications, which included fundraising and polling requirements…

…Hutchinson was recently booed at the Florida Republican Party’s annual Freedom Summit last week…

January 16, 2024: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is ending his 2024 race for president after a dismal sixth-place showing in the Iowa caucuses underscored how little he had been embraced by Republican voters. (ABC News)

With 99% of the expected results in, Hutchinson secured just 191 votes in the Iowa caucuses and zero pledged delegates as of Tuesday morning, appearing to underperform his .07% polling average in the Hawkeye State and trailing little-known pastor Ryan Binkley, who has no national profile to speak of.

“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa,” Hutchinson said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump. “I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future.”

Hutchinson said he had congratulated Trump on the latter’s victor in Iowa and added “[My wife] Susan and I are blessed beyond measure, and we are grateful for the opportunity to have fought in the political arena for America.”

Heading into Iowa’s contest, Hutchison had wanted to make it into the top four and beat businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who has since dropped out.

Since launching his campaign in April 2023, Hutchinson never managed to build significant momentum in the polls with donors and he failed to meet the requirements for each of the Republican primary debates following the first stage last August.

He initially vowed to stay in the race through Thanksgiving, testing to see whether he would break 4% in an early voting state, a goal he did not meet.

But he kept his bid going well beyond that self-imposed deadline — holding dozens of Iowa meet-and-greets in what he called a “Return to Normal” tour during what would be his campaigns final weeks…

…Hutchinson was the first GOP candidate to call for former President Trump to step aside, arguing Trump’s campaign and his many legal issues distract from the issues facing Americans. (Trump denies all wrongdoing.) Hutchinson ultimately outlasted former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had a similar message to conservative voters and similarly failed to persuade any of them…

… Hutchinson was hoping to outlast Trump — whom he supported while governor of Arkansas but broke from after Jan. 6, 2021 — betting that, between multiple criminal indictments and other baggage, the former president would be toppled by external forces or sour with voters.

But with Trump winning the Iowa caucuses and Hutchinson failing to receive any delegates, he finally called it quits…

February 25, 2024: Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) said Sunday that he thinks former President Trump wants to wrap up the nominating process quickly because he sees certain warning signs looming that could threaten his path to the candidacy. (The Hill)

In an interview with MSNBC’s Jonathan Capehart, Hutchison mentioned as potential threats the multiple court cases against Trump, the financial fines and fees he must pay, and the nearly 40 percent of South Carolina GOP voters who voted for Haley.

“I think what Donald Trump is trying to do is to wrap this nomination up very quickly, because he knows the storm clouds are gathering over him,” Hutchinson said.

Asked whether he would support Trump if Haley dropped out of the race, Hutichson said, “Well, I’m not going to support a convicted felon.”

“And of course, that remains to be seen. So let’s see who comes out of the Republican convention. It’s not done until it’s done,” Hutchinson responded, adding later, “Let’s wait and see who comes out of the convention. I’m not going to support a convicted felon.”

Hutchinson did not say whether he would support Trump as the ultimate nominee if the former president is not ultimately convicted in any of his four criminal indictments that he faces — two on the federal level and two on the state level.

Hutchinson said the decision is difficult, as a longtime Republican who still believes in the party.

“I’ve always supported the Republican nominee. It’s sort of a big deal to move a different direction. And I have still hope for the Republican Party,” Hutchinson said. “It’s challenged, because I see the direction and the challenge that Nikki Haley has in front of her, but we’re going to work hard to see if we can change them between now and the convention.”

In response to Hutchison’s comments, a Trump spokesperson wrote in a statement to The Hill: “Nobody cares what Ada Hutchinson has to say. He can go crawl back under whatever rock he slithered out from.”

January 24, 2023: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Tuesday that he will decide whether to mount a bid for the White House in the “next handful of months” as he and his wife continue weighing his political future. (CBS News)

“Susan and I are thinking, praying, trying to figure out if this is the next place to go serve. We haven’t gotten to that conclusion. We’ll figure this out in the next handful of months,” Pompeo said in an interview with Gayle King on “CBS Mornings.”

Pompeo is out with a new book, “Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,” that hit shelves Tuesday. The book focuses on his tenure serving as CIA director and secretary of state in the Trump administration and has been viewed as a springboard for a 2024 presidential run, though Pompeo said the goal is to “tell the story” of the Trump administration’s effort to “put the American people at the front of American foreign policy.”

If Pompeo does seek the Republican nomination in 2024, he would go up against his former boss, who announced in November that he would run for president a third time…

January 29, 2023: Mike Pompeo is prescient, at least. Back in 2016, as a congressman, he warned Kansas Republicans of the danger posed by Donald Trump. Pompeo lamented that the US had already endured more than seven years of “an authoritarian president who ignored our constitution” – meaning Barack Obama – and cautioned that a Trump presidency would be no different (The Guardian)

“It’s time to turn down the lights on the circus,” he said.

Pompeo is an ex-army captan who graduated first in his class at West Point. But in the face of Trump’s triumphs, he turned tail and sucked-up. Pompeo was CIA director then secretary of state. On the job, his sycophancy grew legendary.

“He’s like a heat-seeking missile for Trump’s ass,” a former ambassador recalled to Susan Glasser of the New Yorker.

Never Give an Inch is Pompeo’s opening salvo in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination. On cue, he puckers up to Trump, the only declared candidate so far, and thanks to Mike Pence, a likely contestant, from bringing him into the fold. But where others are concerned, Never Give an Inch doubles as a burn book.

Pompeo strafes two other possible contenders: Nikki Haley, Trump’s first United Nations ambassador, and John Bolton, Trump’s third national security adviser…

…How well is this working? Pompeo may well sell books but fail to move the needle. Polls show him at 1% in the notional presidential primary, tied with the likes of Paul Ryan, the former House Speaker, and Ted Cruz, the Senate’s own squeegee pest. Pompeo trails Haley and Pence…

January 31, 2023: …But seizing attention at the moment is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is currently making his push to join the 2024 conversation using that most useless of all campaign standbys – the political memoir. The good news is that Pompeo is slightly less pathetic than Pence. The bad news is that Pompeo is that he has even less of a chance of becoming president. (The New Republic)

What Pompeo brings to the table is that he is a Frankenstein’s monster of contemporary Republican politics. A creature bred in a Koch brothers lab – the best-known GOP megadonor-influencers were early investors in Pompeo’s aviation company; the Kansas native has been involved in the brothers’ political orbit for decades – Pompeo has hastily rebranded in the Trump era. Though he was reportedly alarmed by Trump’s efforts to foment a coup in the aftermath of the 2020 election, Pompeo has since largely sidestepped any or all talk of the Capitol riot…

April 15, 2023: Former US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Friday that he will not run for president in the 2024 election. (The Guardian)

The devoted ally and defender of Donald Trump opted out of a contest that would have put him into competition with his former commander in chief.

After saying he was weighing a run in January, the former Trump administration official and CIA director released a statement on the decision. “To those of you who this announcement disappoints, my apologies,” he said, calling it a personal choice…

…Where Haley and Pence have openly expressed differences with Trump, Pompeo has had no public split with the former president and hasn’t been rebuked by him, as many of his would-be rivals have. Pompeo recently referred to Trump as a “great boss.”

April 17, 2023: Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he will not run for president as a Republican candidate, and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is also looking unlikely to run, leaving room for the early voter favorites – former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (Deseret News)

“Susan and I have concluded, after much consideration and prayer, that I will not present myself as a candidate to become President of the United States in the 2024 election,” Pompeo said in a release posted on Twitter on Friday…

…He said that his wife will continue to actively engage “as parents, Sunday school teachers, community leaders and business leaders,” adding that, “There remains much to do and the conservative cause is worthy.”…

…Pompeo, who said he was considering a 2024 presidential campaign earlier this year, was polling low among other GOP candidates as well as hopefuls. A national Quinnipiac University poll from February found that he had the support of only 4% of voters surveyed…

December 9, 2023: Back in Wichita for an event promoting his new book, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo didn’t mince words when asked if he supports Donald Trump’s 2024 bid for the presidency. (The Wichita Eagle)

“Oh, goodness, no,” Pompeo told a reporter before the event.

“Because we’re still thinking about running ourselves, and it will be interesting to see who else enters the race.”…

…Pompeo’s memoir – “Never Give An Inch” – is the latest signal that he is considering a run for president. He started a political action committee in April 2021 and has been visiting early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire.

On Friday, Pompeo’s tour stopped at Wichita State University, where he also answered reporters’ questions on a federal abortion ban, election integrity and spy balloons…

Pompeo said he and his wife, Susan, expect to make a decision on a presidential run by late spring or early summer…

March 8, 2023: Chatter is growing around the possibility of Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) launching a 2024 presidential bid as he seeks to bolster his national profile. (The Hill)

Youngkin has inserted himself into the national spotlight in recent weeks as other potential GOP contenders, including fellow Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) of Florida, journey outside of their states to test the presidential waters. Last week, Youngkin made an appearance on CNBC’s morning show “Squawk Box” and will participate in a live town hall on CNN on education, a hot-button issue for the GOP primary base. The governor also met with donors in New York last week…

…While political observers interpret Youngkin’s media blitz as a sign he [is] considering jumping into the 2024 arena, those close to him also emphasize that he’s stumping for Virginia’s highly contested state legislature elections this fall…

…Only 42 percent of GOP respondents said Youngkin should seek their party’s nomination, according to the Roanoke College poll.

That same poll and other surveys also show Youngkin trailing former President Trump, as well as DeSantis, who is mulling a run and bolstering his public profile as well…

March 29, 2023: “Please, please, implored the Republican governor of Virginia: Let us “set aside acrimony” and finger-pointing and all the “mental gymnastics of partisanship” that combine to make people so tired and cynical about “politics as usual.” (Politico)

Before setting that aside, however, Glenn Youngkin had some work to do: In the very same speech to the General Assembly in which he urged bipartisan comity, he blamed Democratic predecessors for “systematically lowered” standards for student achievement, “soft on crime” policies that led to rising murder rates, and outsourcing the state’s energy future to “radical bureaucrats in California.”…

…It’s a matter of taste, to be sure, but many people do not find Youngkin painful. His approval ratings among Virginians is at 58 percent, according to a recent Roanoke College poll. Those who recoil at his rhetorical contradictions and the evident calculation behind them are heavily concentrated here around the state capitol: Legislators who resent what they regard as his unseemly haste in pursuing national ambitions, or local reporters stiffed by a governor who doesn’t much care for their questions.

When politicians can play both ends of the keyboard – sounding notes of grievance and aspiration with equal fluency – they often go far. This spring will likely force a decision by Youngkin about how far, and how fast, he wants to try and go. Should he run for president, even as he was only elected governor, his first foray into politics, less than a year and a half ago?

The reasons to be skeptical are fairly simple. The Republican donor and operative class that wants to put Trump out of their misery for good – the people Youngkin will need if he runs – are worried that the field of candidates will grow too large, dividing the anti-Trump vote. Youngkin’s biography, a wealthy private-equity executive known for his earnest religiosity, conveys a superficial resemblance to Mitt Romney. The 2012 nominee was an establishment natural and may have won some suburban independents that Donald Trump never could – but hardly enough to compensate for his lack of populist skills…

…Unlike DeSantis, however, he also pivots at other moments to sound like a Republican version of Bill Clinton’s 1990s centrism. He says the GOP must avoid exclusionary rhetoric and ideological litmus tests. “What I’ve seen in Virginia, and I think I see across this nation, is we in fact have to bring people into the Republican Party, we have to be additive not [rely on] subtraction.”…

…The reality is that Youngkin is less of an updated version of Mitt Romney than he is of someone who actually became president, George W. Bush…

…As he ponders a presidential run, Youngkin presumably is seeking guidance from a higher power than political journalists. Even so, the political press has an obvious interest in the answer: A Youngkin candidacy would be an entertaining addition to the 2024 race. And it would test the hypothesis that there is a future for a brand of GOP politics that lies somewhere between the nihilism of Trumpism and the pallor of Romneyism.

May 19, 2023: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) released a campaign-style video Thursday, further fueling speculation about a possible 2024 presidential bid. (The Hill)

“It’s pretty overwhelming to contemplate the future of American,” Youngkin says in the video, which pulled remarks from the governor’s address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in April…

…The video, which was paid for by the governor’s Spirit of Virginia PAC, comes after Youngkin said earlier this month that he would not head out on the presidential campaign trail this year.

“I’m going to be working in Virginia this year,” he said at an event at the Milken Institute in Washington D.C.

However, the Virginia governor has continued to stoke speculation about a White House run, appearing not to completely rule out a potential 2024 presidential bid, with an aide telling The Hill at the time that Youngkin’s statement about “working in Virginia” was an answer to a question and meant to reiterate that he was focused on his state in 2023…

July 28, 2023: As Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s presidential campaign stumbles, high-powered GOP figures are turning their attention to another well-known governor: Glenn Youngkin of Virginia. (USA Today)

Youngkin’s approval rating just hit an all-time high, according to a recent poll in which 57% of Virginia voters said they approved of their governor’s job performance. Te same survey found DeSantis’s popularity had slipped between the start of the year and this summer, with his approval rating dropping four points among Florida Republicans and two points among all voters in the state.

This favorability, along with Youngkin’s record-breaking fundraising efforts, has upped speculation about a 2024 presidential campaign. And some party leaders are increasingly hopeful…

…”It’s really humbling when people talk about 2024 and a national role for me. And I thank them, and then I retierate that I’ve got a big job to do here,” Youngkin told USA Today…

September 13, 2023: Some Republicans are holding out hope that a new candidate – perhaps Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin or Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp – will drop into the GOP presidential primary at the last moment and stop former President Donald Trump from winning the party’s nomination. (NBC News)

But at this late date, even The Flash would have a tough time beating deadlines to get on the primary ballot in some states, according to Republicans familiar with the mechanics of running for president…

…To get on the ballot in states isn’t that hard, but it’s time consuming and can be expensive,” [Nick] Trainer said. “These folks’ carriage in their fantasy land is about to turn into a pumpkin.

In other words, the field is all but set, and Republicans who want someone other than Trump know who their choices are now…

October 17, 2023: Glenn Youngkin was waving off talk about running for the White House back in 2021, before he’d even made it to the Virginia governor’s mansion. (Associated Press)

Brad Hobbs, a childhood friend, told The Associated Press at the time that his ultimate goal was to see the Harvard-educated Republican run for president. Hobbs said he brought it up nonstop, even in front of others, which irked Youngkin…

…Conjecture that Youngkin, who is set to host a major donor retreat Tuesday and Wednesday, might make a late entry into the 2024 presidential race has only grown since his victory nearly two years ago. It could further escalate after next month’s high-stakes legislative elections, where he’s aiming for a GOP sweep…

…But the 56-year-old Youngkin, who in public remarks has demurred but not totally shut the door to a bid, would face logistical campaign difficulties, ballot access hurdles, and – according to interviews around the country over the past week – skepticism from some Republican voters, who either don’t know him well or are locked in on Trump…

…Youngkin, who answers questions about his presidential prospects by saying he’s flattered to be in the conversation but focused on Virginia, is currently in the midst of a hectic final push to the state’s Nov. 7 election, with early voting already underway…

…With less than 100 days until voting starts with Iowa’s leadoff caucuses, Youngkin does not have the kind of campaign organization that a presidential hopeful needs to recruit supporters for caucuses or get voters to turn out in January. Most of the presidential campaigns have organizing since early 2023. Trump also has enormous name recognition, years of organizing experience and established supporters nationwide…

November 8, 2023: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said Wednesday that he’s “not going anywhere,” and that he remains focused on the state, indicating that he will not be a candidate in the 2024 presidential election. (NBC News)

Youngkin has long left wiggle room in his answers to questions about the 2024 election, even as filing deadlines and other logistical hurdle made the idea of a late presidential bid seem unlikely. Even so, some supporters have long remained interested in the idea of his joining the GOP primary field.

But jumping in now would mean going back on his statement that he’s staying focused on his state.

Youngkin brushed off a direct question about the 2024 race by noting at a post-election news conference that he’s not on the ballot in the early primary states. Youngkin said he was “disappointed” in the state legislative results Tuesday, in which Democrats kept the State and flipped the state House, despite a big Republican push for complete control of state government…

…Virginia Republicans, led by Youngkin, competed to take over the Legislature for the final two years of his term and win the ability to push their legislative proposals. They included a proposed restriction on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. But Democrats campaigned hard against the plan and won key swing seats using that message…

May 9, 2023: Vivek Ramaswamy will return your call. He’ll say “yes” to almost any interview request – no matter the outlet – and will linger long after scheduled events die down, autographing a piece of fruit or letting prospective supports lay hands on his chest to cancel Satan’s plans. (Politico)

It’s the most always-on, always-available strategy of the 2024 presidential race. And it appears to be working.

Ten weeks after Ramaswamy launched his presidential run, the wealthy 37-year-old biotech entrepreneur has suddenly moved from suspected vanity campaigner to a contender polling in one recent measure on part with established Republicans like former Vice President Mike Pence, Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott…

…Ramaswamy is still a longshot. But the attention he has quickly drawn is significant in a primary in which DeSantis has slid well behind Trump in primary polling while other Republican candidates scramble to make their mark…

May 10, 2023: Just 10 weeks after launching his campaign, Republican presidential hopeful and former biotech executive Vivek Ramaswamy has risen enough in some polls to match the popularity of well-known candidates such as former vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley. He’s pulling respective crowds in early primary states, and he’s reportedly already got some fans who cry out of happiness when they talk about him. (MSNBC)

While he still poises no threat to former President Donald Trump or Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the surge of interest is still a striking development in an already-packed race. Why are people paying attention to this guy?

Two short profiles in The New York Times and Politico this week focus a great deal on Ramaswamy’s personality and always-say-yes attitude toward media interviews as a way of explaining the surge of Republican interest in him. But what these reports overlook in their narratives is that he’s also getting traction because he’s promising to be more extreme than Trump. Ramaswamy remains a total long shot, but his ability to secure attention is a function of his extremism – and the extremism of the party he’s trying to win over…

…Ramaswamy, like Buttigieg in 2020, has correctly identified the power of intense retail politics and media overexposure as a tactic for building a narrative, and, like Yang, he likely profits from being very online. But there’s an essential ingredient to why the matters are paying off: Ramaswamy is affirming the Republican base’s instincts by promising to succeed where Trump failed to deliver and perfect MAGA politics. And people are eating it up…

July 15, 2023: Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy donated $5 million to his own campaign in the second quarter, bringing in a total of $7.7 million before Saturday’s deadline, according to his Federal Election Commission (FEC) filing. (The Hill)

The conservative entrepreneur ended the quarter with about $9 million in cash on hand. His total haul for the second quarter places him well behind the two frontrunners of the Republican primary race – former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis – but ahead of most of the remaining candidates.

However, only about $2.7 million of Ramaswamy’s second quarter haul came from donor contributions. Since launching his bid for the Republican nomination in February, Ramaswamy has load his campaign more than $15 million…

July 18, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called a potential indictment against former President Trump over his alleged role in the attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 a “bad idea,” in an interview Tuesday. (The Hill)

Ramaswamy maintained, however, that Trump exercised “bad judgement” on Jan. 6 and said voters should hold the former president accountable at the ballot box.

“I think he should be held accountable at the ballot box, not at the behest of a federal administrative police state,” Ramaswamy said in NewsNation, when asked whether Trump should be held accountable for the day’s events. “I think it is a bad idea for this country to make a pattern out of using police power to indict a lead political opponent in the middle of an election.”

Ramaswamy, a billionaire tech entrepreneur, has attacked the administration for investigating Trump, but still backed his earlier criticism of Trump’s judgement on Jan. 6…

July 20, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is laying out plans to shut down a number of federal government agencies if elected, starting with the FBI, Department of Education, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. (NBC News)

Ramaswamy says his plan does not require rebuilding anything, but rather organizing.

“In many cases, these agencies are redundant relative to functions that are already performed elsewhere in the federal government,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with NBC News. “When you have redundancy, that’s actually a formula for corruption, as well as waste, fraud, and abuse.”

Ramaswamy’s plan would see money used to run the FBI, for example, be redistributed to the U.S. Secret Service, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.

Ramaswamy says the Presidential Reorganization Act of 1977 provides “and important statutory basis” to go forward with his plan, as it allows him to submit plans to Congress about reorganizing an executive agency…

July 24, 2023: Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy is seeing his support tick up in the Republican presidential primary against former President Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to a Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll survey released Monday. (The Hill)

When respondents were asked whom they would vote for if the GOP presidential primary were today, 52 precent said Trump, 12 percent said DeSantis and 10 percent said Ramaswamy.

Trump lost 7 percentage points and Ramaswamy gained 8 points compared to the most recent survey before Monday.

When respondents were asked whom they would vote for in the GOP primary if Trump decided not to run, DeSantis sat at 29 percent – a decrease of 12 points from the previous survey – while Ramaswamy stood at 19 percent, an increase of 12 points. Former Vice President Mike Pence received 13 percent…

August 3, 2023: Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said Sunday that 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s support for former President Trump represents a “complete lack of moral compass.” (The Hill)

“What I just heard was the complete lack of a moral compass,” Kaine said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”

Kaine followed Ramaswamy’s interview, during which Ramaswamy repeatedly doubled down on his position that he would support the former president as the party’s chosen nominee, even if he were convicted of a crime. Trump faces more than 90 criminal charges in four separate indictments.

“If you are unwilling to say that the behavior of Donald Trump trying to overturn the peaceful transfer of power is a disqualified, if you pledged despite that to vote for him, if you pledged despite that to pardon him should you be elected, it shows that you don’t have the moral compass that you need to be the leader of the greatest nation in the world,” Kaine said.

“And, sadly, Mr. Ramaswamy is not alone in lacking the compass. I think that was displayed pretty patently by many of the GOP candidates on the debate stage,” Kaine added.

Ahead of the first primary debate late last month, all debate participants were required to sign a pledge to support the ultimate nominee. When they appeared on the stage, they were asked whether they would support Trump if he were a convicted felon but still the Republican nominee…

August 7, 2023: Vivek Ramaswamy suggested canceling Juneteenth, calling it a “useless” holiday in conversation with Iowa voters Saturday. (NBC News)

Less than two months ago, however, he posted a video on social media celebrating the day.

Breaking down his plan to institute a national voting holiday, Ramaswamy, a GOP presidential candidate, proposed making space for the new holiday by canceling an old one.

“Cancel Juneteenth or one of the other useless ones we made up,” Ramaswamy told an applauding crowd gathered at a welding company here.

Asked by NBC News to clarify whether he thought Juneteenth was a “useless” holiday, Ramaswamy said, “I basically do.”

Less than two months ago, on Juneteenth itself, he spoke differently about the celebration…

August 18, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy suggested Friday if elected in 2024 he would run the government like tech billionaire Elon Musk runs the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter. (The Hill)

“What [Musk] did at Twitter is a good example of what I want to do to the administrative state,” Ramaswamy said in an interview on Fox News’s “The Ingraham Angle.” “Take out the 75 percent of dead weight cost, improve the actual experience of what it’s supposed to do.”…

August 18, 2023: Republican presidential candidate and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy is facing two lawsuits from former employees who say that when they worked at the company he cofounded, Strive Asset Management, they were aggressively pressured into violating securities laws, according to Bloomberg, which first reported these lawsuits Friday morning. (Forbes)

Joel Rosely – who filed a lawsuit Aug. 8 in New Jersey that names Ramaswamy, Strive Asset Management, and cofounder Anson Frericks as defendants – alleges she was fired as co-head of institutional sales because she raised concerns about an executive making aggressive sexual advances toward a lower level staffer at the firm and about securities laws violations.

Rosely also claims Ramaswamy and Frericks pressured her into using sales materials that promised customers future returns and allowing unregistered employees to make sales pitches to customers, which both constitute securities violations…

…Another lawsuit was filed in June by John Phillips, who said he was lured to Strive Asset Management from his previous JPMorgan job on false promises that the firm had good financing and that Ramaswamy, who promptly quit to run for president, was committed to the company…

August 21, 2023: Standing in a packed New Hampshire restaurant, Vivek Ramaswamy, the fresh-faced Republican shaking up the 2024 presidential race, is making a case for unifying a bitterly divided nation. The secret, he insists, is as American as apple pie: capitalism. (Forbes)

…At 38 years old, the biotech investor and “anti-woke” warrior is worth more than $950 million. His net worth was over $1 billion about a week ago, making him one of the youngest billionaires in the country, before a downturn in the market pulled him just under the billion-dollar threshold, according to Forbes’ calculations. Still, he appears to be the second-wealthiest person competing in the Republican presidential primary, behind only Donald Trump (whose net worth Forbes last pegged at $2.5 billion)…

…Then there are his political interests. In 2021, Ramaswamy stepped down as CEO of Roivant and got into politics, authoring a book called “Woke, Inc.,” which criticized corporate America’s growing focus on social justice issues and the ESG (environmental, social and governance) movement taking over Wall Street. A year later, he founded an “anti-woke” index fund provider – think BlackRock, without all the talk about saving the world – named Strive Asset Management. Investors recently valued Strive at a lofty $300 million or so, according to two individuals familiar with the financing, implying that Ramaswamy’s state is worth well over $100 million…

…Despite all his money and connections, Ramaswamy looks pretty comfortable doing a meet-and-greet politicking in New Hampshire. It helps, he says, that he doesn’t live like a tycoon. “I don’t think we have lived a lifestyle that is radically removed from the one we grew up in.”

He owned two Ohio homes worth a combined $2.5 million, less than the real estate portfolios of far-less-wealthy candidates, including Nikki Haley, Francis Suarez, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and President Joe Biden. “We don’t have a giant vacation homes,” Ramaswamy says. “We see five of our neighbor’s backyards. We have good relationships with our neighbors.”…

August 27, 2023: At the conclusion of Vivek Ramaswamy’s second campaign stop here on Saturday – his sixth event out of eight over two days in Iowa – his staff rushed him toward their campaign bus. The businessman-turned-politician was late for a flight across the state to his next event. But as reporters and camera crews crowded the bus to see him off, Ramaswamy stopped and took time for questions. (CNN)

It was hardly a new occurrence. He’d held impromptu press availabilities after nearly every event on this tour up to that point. More striking was that, nearly 72 hours after playing a starring role in Wednesday’s heated and highly combative Republican primary debate, he was still taking stock of the defining moment on his campaign thus far.

“I think it’s a major accomplishment that many people are able to pronounce my name now. That’s the true mark of a real milestone on this campaign,” Ramaswamy joked. “If we got there, anything’s possible.”…

September 1, 2023: Fox News Anchor John Roberts pressed Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy over his views defending Taiwan from China during an interview Friday. (The Hill)

Ramaswamy has isolated himself from the rest of the GOP primary field on a number of key policy issues, including not supporting continued aide for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and a radical proposal to cede territory taken by Russia in eastern Ukraine in exchange for Moscow ending its military alliance with China.

The tech entrepreneur’s views on Taiwan are another example of his unique agenda.

Roberts confronted Ramaswamy over his stance that America should only support Taiwan because it produces semiconductors…

September 8, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says that as president, he would deport American-born children of undocumented immigrants. (NBC News)

“The family unit will be deported,” said Ramaswamy when asked by NBC News if the deportations would include American-born children, after a packed town hall here Friday.

These children, however, are U.S. citizens, regardless their parents’ immigration status. The 14th Amendment states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.”

When asked again if these children would be deported along with their families Ramaswamy doubled down.

“That is correct,” he said…

September 10, 2023: Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign hats that were made in a repressive country still found their way out on the campaign trail last week even after the Republican presidential candidate said he’d stop distributing them. (Raw Story)

According to a Raw Story source who requested anonymity to protect their job, “Truth, Vote Vivek.” hats were handed out as recently as last Wednesday at a campaign event in Iowa. And Ramaswamy posted a video on X Saturday showing him personally putting on the black baseball cap on a supporter.

Each was several days after Raw Story broke the news that Ramaswamy’s black baseball caps where manufactured in Myanmar, a country rife with human right atrocities and led by a military junta that has close ties with China – a country with which Ramaswamy is campaigning to cut dependence…

…Ramaswamy’s campaign had pledged to ditch the made-in-Myanmar caps after Raw Story asked about them.

“When this was brought to Vivek’s attention, he said we were changing. He was not aware at all of the source, and it has been changed,” Stefan Mychajliw, deputy communications director for Ramaswamy’s campaign, told Raw Story on September 8.

But that did not come to pass, and now, Mychajliw says he has “no idea” what happened to the remaining “Made in Myanmar” hats and “no knowledge” of them being distributed in Iowa last week…

September 21, 2023: Vivek Ramaswamy has sparked firestorm of criticism since launching his 2024 presidential campaign for comments that some have called racially charged. (The Hill)

Recently, the 38-year-old entrepreneur faced backlash for comparing Rep. Ayanna Pressley, a Black Democrat representing Massachusetts, to “modern grand wizards” of the Ku Klux Klan. He has said that the U.S. education system is a “modern ghetto system,” that the government pays women in inner cities to be single, and has argued with former CNN anchor Don Lemon on what it was like to live as a Black person in America.

“I think there’s a pattern here, but to be honest, I will go one step further and say that this is a cornerstone of his campaign,” said Brandon Weathersby, presidential communications director for he American Bridge PAC.

“Just because you deliver it with a smile, just because it’s a little more palatable, doesn’t mean that it’s not going to have a lot of the same negative implications Norfolk’s or literally feeling like there’s a target on your back when you go outside or when you go into certain communities, because that rhetoric has been normalized.”…

…Earlier in August, Ramaswamy promised that if he secured the GOP nomination, he would “bring along voters of diverse shades of melanin in droves,” to win the general election.

But his rhetoric on race only continues to draw criticism, with some experts saying his comments do not speak to Black voters at all…

September 27, 2023: Vivek Ramaswamy, a multimillionaire former biotech executive, has a chance to build on the attention he’s been getting in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination at Wednesday night’s second debate. (Reuters)

…In recent years, Ramaswamy has become a fierce conservative. In his 2021 bestseller “Woke, Inc.,” Ramaswamy decries decisions by some big companies to base business strategy around social justice and climate change concerns, and lambasts “wokeism” as an insidious influence on hard work, capitalism, religious faith and patriotism. The book raised Ramaswamy’s profile among conservatives, and he began is rapid ascension as a right-wing star…

…Ramaswamy declared his campaign for president in February, at a time when his bid looked like a long shot. He still languishes in the single digits in most opinion polls but has been gaining on many of his rivals, most notably Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is now fighting to retain his second-place status.

Ramaswamy’s strong, pugnacious performance in the first debate last month, when he laid out an agenda even further to the right of Trump on some issues, earned him a lot of attention, as well as criticism, and boosted him in some Republican primary opinion polls.

He has been a fierce defender of Trump while seeking to appeal to Christian evangelicals, an important part of the Republican primary electorate. Although a Hindu, Ramaswamy has been telling voters that the U.S. is based on “Christian values” and “Judeo-Christian values” and has described himself as an American nationalist.

His policy positions are mostly deeply conservative. He opposes affirmative action and supports state-level bans on abortion after six weeks, with exceptions for rape, incest, and if the mother’s life is in danger. Ramaswamy wants to greatly expand the powers of the presidency and dismantle much of the federal government, including the FBI, the Department of Education, and the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service…

September 30, 2023: Entrepreneur and 2024 GOP presidential primary candidate Vivek Ramaswamy expressed his negative view of the recently passed stopgap funding bill to keep the government funded on Saturday. (The Hill)

“My first reaction is the reaction it’s been for the last several days, which is this whole debate is a farce. It’s a deflection,” Ramaswamy told reporters following his speech at the California GOP convention.

He added, “Even if the government were gonna shut down, we know what happens every time. They get the back pay, it comes back bigger every time. We need to stop the artificial debate about fake government shutdowns and start having a real debate — how to achieve a true shutdown of the administrative state.”

His answer comes a few days after a recent GOP presidential debate in which he fell in support behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, according to a Washington Post survey of people who watched the debate…

October 1, 2023: GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign is asking the Republican National Committee (RNC) to cut the number of candidates for the third debate down to four. (The Hill)

Vivek 2024 CEO Ben Yoho urged the RNC to limit the next debate to the top four candidates in national polling besides former President Trump in a letter addressed to RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel and Committee on Arrangements co-Chairs David Bossie and Anne Hathaway. He also asked the RNC to raise the donor threshold to 100,000 donors.

“But against the backdrop of a chaotic second debate and the reality of a frontrunner who has declined to participate, we respectfully call on the RNC to revise its approach so that Republican voters can focus on serious candidates who have a viable path to beating Joe Biden — or whomever the Democrats put up to replace him,” Yolo write in the letter obtained by The Hill.

To qualify for the Nov. 6 debate, Republican candidates will need to show two national polls that have them at 4 percent or higher, or they’ll need to receive 4 percent support in one national poll and two different early state polls.

Candidates also need to meet a donor threshold of at least 70,000 unique donors, including at least 200 from 20 or more states each.

Besides raising the threshold, the Ramaswamy campaign is asking the RNC to provide more time for candidates to respond to their rivals and to also use a single moderator “who is able to enforce debate rules and avoid candidates indiscernibly shouting over each other.”

“Time is running out. Early-state voting is rapidly approaching in January. Another unhelpful debate in November is not an option: voters deserve a real choice for who will best serve as our party’s nominee. Voters are not well-served when a cacophony of candidates with minimal chance of success talk over each other rom the edge of the stage, while overwhelming frontrunner is absent from the center of the same stage,” Yoho wrote…

November 11, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy’s national political director, Brian Swenson, is departing the campaign to work on former President Trump’s team, Ramaswamy senior advisor Tricia McLaughlin confirmed to The Hill. (The Hill)

…The development comes as Ramaswamy has been trailing Trump and several other 2024 Republican contenders, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley, in early state polls.

The 38-year-old biotech entrepreneur launched his campaign in February as a little-known candidate in February as a little-known candidate, later emerging in the summer as a breakout star. But Ramaswamy struggled to keep up that momentum, including during the presidential debates as he became tangled in back-and-forths with Haley and former Vice President Pence.

November 20, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy called out Democratic strategist Donna Brazile on Sunday, maintaining she “intentionally mispronounced” his name during a TV appearance. (The Hill)

The presidential candidate responded to a clip from “Real Time with Bill Maher” in which Brazil, the former interim chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC), questioned how to pronounce Ramaswamy’s name…

…Ranaswamy, who was born in the United States to Indian parents, panned the former DNC head’s remarks on the show.

“I wonder what they’d do if a white Republican intentionally mispronounced Donna’s name & then told her to return ‘home’,” Ramaswamy wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, while sharing a laughing emoji”…

December 4, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said in an interview that he’ll “overpreform expectations” in Iowa and New Hampshire primaries next month. (The Hill)

During an appearance on NewsNation’s The Hill, Ramaswamy told host Blake Burman that he believes he has a good shot of winning state primaries in Iowa, Nevada, and New Hampshire.

Ramaswamy said that he plans one completing the “full Grassley” – visiting all 99 Iowa counties – twice in the first week of January, noting that he’s already attracted supporters who are first time caucus goers in the state.

“Many of the people come in to support us at the caucus are first time ever caucus goers, which means we’re going to shatter what the polls say, and I think there’s a surprise coming on January 15,” Ramaswamy told Burman.

When Burman asked if Ramaswamy wanted to overpreform expectations in those states, the entrepreneur turned presidential candidate reiterated his initial remarks…

December 11, 2023: A man from New Hampshire is facing federal charges after allegedly threatening to kill 2024 GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, according to an affidavit filed Saturday. (The Hill)

The threats were sent in text messages to the Ramaswamy campaign, which altered authorities.

Though the affidavit redacted the name of the candidate involved, Ramaswamy senior advisor Tricia McLaughlin, confirmed that it was about Ramaswamy.

Tyler Anderson is charged with transmitting in interstate commerce a threat to injure another person after he allegedly texted Ramaswamy’s campaign that he was going to kill the 38-year-old GOP millennial and attendees at a campaign event after receiving the text from Ramaswamy’s campaign inviting him to a breakfast, the affidavit said…

December 13, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said that he believes the Supreme Court should overturn the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. (The Hill)

Ramaswamy said at a CNN town hall in Iowa on Wednesday that the case, which the court agreed earlier on Wednesday to hear, is about the authority that regulatory agencies have without direct authorization from Congress. He argued that the FDA exceeded its authority in approving the pill in 2000.

“It’s my opinion… that the FDA exceeded its statutory authority in using an emergency approval to approve something that doesn’t fit Congress’s criteria for what actually counts as an emergency approval,” Ramaswamy said.

The court agreed to take up the case following requests from the Justice Department and Danco, which is the manufacturer of Mifeprex, the branded version of mifepristone. The case could limit the availability of the drug.

The pill is commonly used throughout the country for abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and about half of all abortions nationwide are conducted using the pill as part of a two-pill regimen, according to the Guttmacher Institute…

…”The people who we elect to run the government, they’re not even the ones who run the government right now. It’s the bureaucrats in those three-letter agencies that are pulling the strings today,” [Ramaswamy] said.

Ramaswamy added that as president, he would “shut down that fourth branch of government” and rescind “unconstitutional” federal regulations that Congress did not pass. He said mifepristone should be taken off the market until it goes through the process that other drugs without emergency approval go through…

January 15, 2024: Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy suspended his bid for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on Monday and endorsed former President Donald Trump after finishing a distant fourth in Iowa’s leadoff caucuses. (Associated Press)

Ramaswamy said he made the decision after determining there was no path forward for him in the race, “absent things that we don’t want to see happen to in this country.”

The 38-year-old political novice, who sought to replicate Trump’s rise as a bombastic, wealthy outsider, said he called the former president earlier Monday evening to congratulate him on his victory in Iowa. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis came in second, with former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley just behind in third.

Ramaswamy told supporters gathered at a Des Moines hotel that Trump, “will have my full endorsement for the presidency.”…

January 16, 2024: Ramaswamy was never really seen as a serious contender by many of his Republican rivals, but he is a right-wing figure who successfully used the 2024 cycle to boost his profile. Though he struggled to poll higher that the low single digits, his combative debate performances and nonstop media appearances helped him gain some measure of (relative popularity,) or, at least notoriety. He’s dropped out after coming in fourth place in the Iowa caucuses, and immediately endorsed Trump. (Vox)

…In his announcement video, he staked his candidacy on combatting the “woke left” and what he referred to as “new secular religions like Covidism, climatism, and gender ideology.”

“This is psychological slaver, and that has created a new culture of fear in our country that has completely replaced our culture of free speech in American, he said in the video…

…Ultimately, Ramaswamy struggled to overcome his rivals with far greater platforms, name recognition, donor networks, and war chests — many of whom arguably pioneered his brand of politics.

June 7, 2023: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum entered the Republican race for president Wednesday, offering himself as a candidate of “small town values” who can help steer the country in a different direction. (NBC News)

“We need a leader who understands the real work that Americans do every day – someone who’s worked alongside our farmers or ranchers and our small-business owners,” Burgum said during his announcement speech in Fargo. “Someone who’s held jobs where you shower at the end of the day, not at the beginning.”

Burgum, 66, is the latest edition to a field that is expanding with GOP hopefuls eager to assert themselves as the most appealing alternative to the front-runner, former President Donald Trump…

…Burgum’s entry followed a Tuesday night launch in New Hampshire by former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and came about an hour ahead of former Vice President Mike Pence’s expected campaign kickoff in Iowa….

…A former businessman who years ago turned a small software company into a $1.1 billion deal with Microsoft, Burgum begins as a long shot in a crowded primary. The Republican National Committee’s recently released criteria for qualifying for the first presidential debate in August include specific polling and fundraising thresholds that could be tough for someone so unknown outside North Dakota. One CNN poll last month placed Burgum, – who besides DeSantis is the only other sitting governor in the race, but one which a much lower profile – at 1% nationally.

In an interview last month with NBC News, the multimillionaire Burgum said he would invest his own money in the campaign, though he did not disclose how much he is willing to spend…

…Debate participants also will be required to pledge support to the GOP’s eventual nominee. Trump has not committed to doing so. And some of his opponents have said they do not plan to back the former president if he’s nominated for a third straight time.

Burgum told NBC News last month that he would support Trump or any Republican in a race against President Joe Biden…

July 9, 2023: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgrum has said he would vote for Donald Trump again for president, but he draws the line at ever conducting business with the man he’s running against for the Republican nomination. (NBC News)

Burgum, a former business owner who turned a small software company into a $1.1 billion deal with Microsoft, was asked whether he would do business with Trump by host Chuck Todd in an interview that aired Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“I don’t think so,” Burgum responded. Asked why, he said, “I just think it’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep.”

One person Burgum said he’d be comfortable doing business with is Elon Musk, the billionaire owner of Twitter and Tesla.

Asked what the difference was between Musk and Trump, Burgum said: “Just look at business track records is what I would say, and that’s what I would take a peek at before I would make a decision about who you partner with.”…

…Burgum has focused his campaign more on policy issues than on the culture war topics favored by other candidates, like Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He said on “Meet the Press” that that would remain his focus if he’s elected president…

July 12, 2023: Looking to make a splash in the crowded pool of Republican presidential contenders, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum is offering an unusual deal to donors: Anyone who sends a donation of at least $1 will get a $20 gift card in return. (NPR)

The campaign’s offer is good for the first 50,000 donors – and is an unconventional bid to meet the fundraising thresholds required to be onstage for next month’s Republican primary debate.

In this case, it’s not the dollar amount of donations that matters; it’s the number of donors. To participate in the debate, candidates must have at least 40,000 donors. They also have to bring in donations from 200 or more donors in at least 20 states.

The rules create “some unusual incentives” for quickly building a wide donor base, Nick Bauroth, who chairs the political science department at North Dakota State University, told NPR.

“This offer could cost Bugrum up to a million dollars, but well worth it if he gets on the main stage,” at the debate, Bauroth added. Also worth remembering: Bugrum is a billionaire…

…Who is Burgum? He’s a former political outsider who surprised many in 2016 when he won the race to become his home state’s governor. That year, Burgum had placed third in the running for the Republican convention’s endorsement – but he won the party primary just two months later.

“In the past, the party endorsement decided the matter,” Bauroth said, but Burgum overturned that norm. He was reelected in 2020…

…Burgum announced his candidacy for U.S. president last month via a launch event in Fargo and an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal. He’s battling for attention against the likes of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former President Donald Trump…

August 6, 2023: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, largely refused on Sunday to weigh in on the GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 indictment. (ABC News)

But he acknowledged in an appearance of ABC’s “This Week” that “I believe that Joe Biden won the election,” marking the first time on the trail he has said that.

Following that declaration, Burgum told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos: “I believe that we have to move on to the future.”

Stephanopoulos had been pressing Burgum for his view on Trump’s alleged conduct in challenging the 2020 results: “It’s not simply a legal question, sir. It’s a moral question. It’s an ethical question. It’s a question about civics.”

Early in Burgum’s appearance, Stephanopoulos said, “I know you want to talk about your campaign and the future, but the fact is that Donald Trump is the front-runner right now. He’s facing three felony indictments. Have you read the indictments, and what’s your reaction to them?”

The governor avoided commenting on if he had read Trump’s three felony indictments — all of which Trump denies — and his opinion on if Trump was wrong in pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the election results on Jan. 6, 2021…

November 12, 2023: Long-shot Republican presidential candidate Doug Burgum, the governor of North Dakota, has vowed that he will not suspend his campaign before the New Hampshire primary after he failed to make the debate stage in Miami last week. (NBC News)

Burgum has stagnated in early-state polls in recent months and failed to qualify for the third GOP presidential primary debate, hosted by NBC News on Wednesday.

Asked by NBC News is he could guarantee his campaign would last at least through the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15, Burgum said Saturday after a campaign event here: “100%”.

“Iowa, New Hampshire – absolutely, positively, we’re going to be here,” Burgum added…

…Since he launched his bid in June, Burgum’s campaign has failed to jump-start despite having spent millions along with his super PAC, on television advertising.

The candidate’s personal wealth may be what’s still keeping his campaign alive. Former Vice President Mike Pence recently suspended his campaign over financial woes, but Burgum’s successful career as a tech mogul and businessman has allowed him to self-fund much of his long-shot bid…

…After not meeting the RNC’s qualifications to appear on Wednesday’s debate stage, Burgum has upped his criticism of the RNC for what he calls its “clubhouse rules.”

“The RNC has no charter to say we’re going to narrow the field artificially two months before the voting starts,” he said Saturday, adding that “two months is an eternity in presidential primaries.”

December 4, 2023: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum ended his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination on Monday after a stronger-than-expected showing fueled by a gift card-for-campaign donation gimmick that helped him get on the debate stage. (The Guardian)

Burgum, a second-term governor and wealthy software entrepreneur, was little known nationally when he launched his 2024 presidential campaign in June, touting his priorities of energy, the economy and national security, as well as his small-town roots and leadership of the sparsely populated state.

He participated in the first two Republican debates, meeting donor requirements of the Republican National Committee by offering $20 “Biden Relief Cards” – a jab at rising inflation rates during President Joe Biden’s term – in exchange for $1 donation. The tactic drew skepticism over its legality, through Burgum’s campaign said its legal advisors had reviewed and approved the method.

He failed to qualify for the third debate, however, after coming up short on the polling requirements. And it appeared he would also not qualify for the fourth debate.

Indeed, he blamed the Republican National Committee, which sets qualifications for the debates, for “nationalizing the primary process and taking the power of democracy away from the engaged, thoughtful citizens of Iowa and New Hampshire.”…

…Ultimately, he was unable to gain much traction against his rivals in a contest dominated by Donald Trump. He joins Mike Pence, the former vice-president; Tim Scott; a South Carolina senator Larry Elder; the radio show host Perry Johnson; Will Hurd, former Texas congressman and Frances Suarez, the mayor of Miami, in suspending his bid…

January 16, 2024: North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announced his bid in a June 2023 Wall Street Journal op-ed, and ended it six months later after failing to make the fourth debate stage. (Vox).

Bergum promised to make the economy his top priority without mentioning thornier culture war issues: “We need to get inflation under control, cut taxes, lower gas prices and reduce the cost of living,” he wrote in his op-ed…

…Burgum is well-liked in North Dakota but didn’t have the national name recognition of some of his GOP rivals, more is he cast from the Trumpian mold, which made it difficult for him to break through to primary voters who still love the former president. While he qualified for the first debate, he consistently struggled to poll above 1 percentage point, despite offering potential donors gift cards in exchange for their support…

December 14, 2023: Marc Short, once the chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence, said Thursday that Pence isn’t likely to endorse former President Trump for the 2024 election. (The Hill)

“I don’t think President Trump should be holding his breath for that,” Short said of an endorsement, in an appearance on “The Hill” on NewsNation. “I certainly would not anticipate any endorsement of him anytime soon.”

Short, who remains a close ally of Pence, has consistently criticized Trump over his handling of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, as Pence has.

He said the issue is “more than personal” for Pence, who had been at the receiving end of harsh criticism from his former running mate since the pare left the White House in 2021.

Short pointed specifically to Trump’s demands for Pence to overturn the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.

“Your oath to the Constitution is one of your most sacred oaths to take,” he said. “If you violate that oath, and you call on your vice president to violate that oath — I think that’s a pretty fundamental difference.”

Pence has shied away from the limelight sine suspending his 2024 presidential campaign in October.

On the campaign trail, he criticized Trump’s claims that the 2020 election was stolen and his requests for Pence to overturn the results…

May 15, 2023: A new super PAC backing Mike Pence as a 2024 presidential candidate launched Monday, marking a significant step as the former vice president weighs whether to enter the GOP primary in the coming weeks. (The Hill)

Committed to America announced its leadership, which includes former Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and veteran GOP consultant Scott Reed as national co-chairs.

“Mike Pence is the conservative leader our nation needs at this critical time,” Hensarling said in a statement. “From chairing the House Republican Conference, to leading the state of Indiana, to serving as vice president, Mike has consistently demonstrated an unparalleled commitment to conservative principles and the Constitution. Mike can win, he is ready to lead, and I am proud to help lead the effort that will send him to the White House.”

The executive director of the group will be Bobby Saparow, who managed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s (R) reelection campaign in 2022, when Kemp defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams by a wider margin than he did in 2018…

…The pro-Pence super PAC will launch with offices in Dallas and Iowa, the group said, with additional hiring announcements expected in the coming days.

The launch of Committed to America is one of the clearest signs to date that Pence is likely to enter the 2024 presidential race…

May 31, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence is likely to announce next week that he is running for president in 2024, according to a source familiar with the plans. (The Hill)

The source said Pence’s team is finalizing plans to launch his campaign for the White House, joining the expanding GOP primary field with a forward-looking video announcement and speech that makes the case for his candidacy.

The former vice president is expected to put much of his focus on Iowa, which hosts the first caucus on the GOP primary calendar.

Pence is scheduled to participate in a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa June 7 – an event that was billed in one release as a “Presidential Town Hall.” Pence will celebrate his 64th birthday the same day.

NBC News and CNN reported that Pence will make his campaign official on June 7…

…For Pence to win the nomination, he will have to overtake Trump, his old running mate. Pence was unflinchingly loyal to Trump throughout their four years in office together, defending the former president through myriad controversies…

May 31, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence is set to launch his run for the White House against his old boss, former President Donald Trump, within the the coming two weeks, four sources familiar with the planning told The Messenger.

The Georgia Republican Party may have tipped Pence’s hand Wednesday in an email explaining he could not longer deliver the keynote address at a June 9th even. Pence would make “an announcement regarding his future plans” at a televised town hall, the email said. The Georgia GOP did not specify which town hall, but Pence is scheduled to headline a CNN town hall in Des Moines, Iowa on June 7, his 64th birthday.

Four Republicans familiar with the plans say Pence and his team started ramping up their outreach two weeks ago, telling supporters that the launch was imminent and would take place in mid-June…

…The launch marks a historic run by the two men at the center, yet opposite sides, of the January 6 insurrection. The former vice president, who rioters came within 40 feet of confronting in the Capitol that day as other Trump faithfuls chanted “Hang Mike Pence,” has been reticent to comment on the attack in public, yet has been cooperating to various degrees with investigators probing Trump’s responsibility for the attack…

June 7, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence formally launched his 2024 presidential campaign Wednesday, releasing a video that made the broad case for his candidacy amid an increasingly crowded Republican primary field. (The Hill)

In a nearly three-minute video, titled “Best Days,” Pence made no direct mention of former President Trump, nor is the former president featured on screen.

Instead, the former vice president narrates a video that offers a brief personal history of his family and government service and argues that the country should turn the page on President Biden without returning to Trump…

…Wednesday’s video launch comes two days after Pence officially filed paperwork to run for president in 2024. The former vice president is set to hold an event in Iowa on Wednesday afternoon, followed in the evening by a CNN town hall event in Des Moines….

…Ultimately, though, it remains to be seen whether the is an appetite among GOP primary voters for a Pence candidacy. A section of primary voters who still back Trump view Pence as a traitor because he did not reject the 2020 election results when he oversaw Congress’ official electoral count as vice president and instead insisted on abiding by the Constitution. And those looking for an alternative may be more drawn to candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis…

June 7, 2023: Mike Pence, who as Donald Trump’s vice-president narrowly escaped harm at the hands of the January 6 rioters, launched his run for the Republican presidential nomination next year, pitting him against his former boss. (The Guardian)

Pence filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission on Tuesday afternoon and released his official campaign launch video early on Wednesday. His formal launch event was planned to take place in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday – his 64th birthday.

He posted the video on Twitter on Wednesday, writing: “I believe in the American people, and I have faith God is not done with American yet. Together, we can bring this Country back and the best days for the Greatest Nation on Earth are yet to come.”…

…He attacked the Democratic administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, showing clips of the president and vice president and warning about the “radical left” that “recession is looming,” the US-Mexico border is “under siege” and “the American dream is being crushed under runaway inflation,” lamenting a “weakened America” at home and abroad.

The former congressman and Indiana governor, an evangelical conservative, enters a primary dominated by Trump, who enjoys commanding polling leads, well clear of his nearest challenger, the rightwing Florida governor Ron DeSantis.

A Pence run has long been expected but he has not registered significantly in polling, generally contesting third place with the former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley…

June 17, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence said he does not know why other 2024 Republican presidential candidates “presume” former President Trump will be found guilty of the charges he is facing. (The Hill)

Pence said in an interview with Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press,”… that discussing whether to pardon Trump for the charges he is facing is “premature,” as the legal proceedings have not yet played out.

“Let me say first and foremost, I don’t know why some of my competitors in the Republican primary presume the president will be found guilty,” he said. “Look, all we know is what the president has been accused of in his indictment. We don’t know what his defense is. We don’t know if this will even go to trial. It could be subject to a motion to dismiss. We don’t know what the verdict will be of the jury.”…

…Todd pressed Pence on whether he would pardon Trump now if he was in President Biden’s position.

“I just think this whole matter is incredibly divisive for the country. And look, I just think at the end of the day, it is saddening to me that we are now in this moment,” Pence responded.

Pence said before the indictment was issues that he hoped the Justice Department would not move forward as it would divide the country, but said after it was unsealed that the allegations against Trump are “very serious” and he “can’t defend” what is alleged.

Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 counts filed against him in the classified and sensitive documents probe Tuesday.

June 17, 2023: Former Vice President and 2024 candidate Mike Pence said he would “clean house” in federal law enforcement if he was elected president.

“The American people have lost confidence in the Department of Justice. And if I’m president of the United States on day one, we’re going to clean house from the top floor of the Department of Justice and bring in a whole new group of people, Pence told The New York Post.

Alongside a wave of new hires at the Justice Department, Pence said the first person he would fire would be FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Pence has previously questioned Justice Department investigations into former President Trump and said that discussions on whether Trump should be pardoned are “premature.”

“The President is entitled to his day in court, he’s entitled to bring a defense, and I want to reserve judgement until he has the opportunity to respond,” he told The Wall Street Journal this week…

…Pence also signaled that his relationship with Trump may have faltered since they both left office, telling The New York Post that Trump “was” his friend. Pence faced criticism of the former president’s supporters after he refused to stop the certification of the election during the Jan. 6 insurrection in 2021.

July 14, 2023: Former Fox News host Tucker Carlson aggressively pressed former Vice President Mike Pence Friday about how he’d characterize the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a pro-Trump mob invaded the Capitol, forced the evacuation of lawmakers and interrupted the counting of electoral votes in the 2020 election. (The Hill)

The questioning by Carlson, who described the events if Jan. 6 as “mostly peaceful chaos” while at Fox News, underscored how Pence’s break with former President Trump that day will be a defining feature of his campaign.

Many of Trump’s supporters have never forgiven Pence, who was hanged in effigy that day, for his actions on Jan. 6, and it is a major problem in his quest for the presidency.

Carlson opened his questioning of Pence by asking if the former vice president thought the attack on the Capitol was an “insurrection.”

“All I know for sure having lived through it at the Capitol is that it was a tragic day,” Pence said at a Family Leader event in Des Moines, Iowa. “I’ve never used the word insurrection, Tucker, over the past two years, but it was a riot that took place at the Capitol that day.”

Pence, who was whisked away to safety as rioters stormed the Capitol to try and stop the certification of President Biden’s electoral victory, said he witnessed firsthand the dozens of police officers who were assaulted that day and the “tragic loss of life” that occurred.

Carlson asked Pence who specifically he was referring to when he spoke of the loss of life, and Pence mentioned Ashli Babbitt, a protestor who was shot in the Capitol by law enforcement and whose death has become a rallying point for Trump and other conservatives.

“I just think that was a tragic moment, without question,” Pence said. “But I have to tell you that seeing people assaulting law enforcement officers, smashing windows, breaking into the Capitol building, it infuriated me. And it’s very likely that the restraint that was shown by law enforcement officers saved lives that day”…

July 18, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday he hoped the Justice Department (DOJ) would not pursue charges against Donald Trump for his conduct around the Jan. 6 riots after the former president said he was notified he’s the target of the agency’s investigation into Trump’s attempts to remain in power after the 2020 election. (The Hill)

Pence, who testified before the grand jury in that case, told Elizabeth Vargas on NewsNation that Trump’s words on Jan. 6 were “reckless” and that the former president continues to be wrong in his assertions about 2020 election.

“But with regard to the prospect of an indictment, I hope it doesn’t come to that,” said Pence, who is running against Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. “I’m not convinced that the president acting on the bad advice of a group of crank lawyers that came into the White House in the days before Jan. 6 is actually criminal.”

“And secondly, the truth is that the Department of Justice has lost the confidence the American people. And there’s so many Americans that are deeply concerned about unequal treatment under the law,” Pence continued.

“I don’t know what the letter today means, the notification means, but my hope is that the judgement about the president’s actions on Jan. 6 would be left to the American people,” the former vice president added…

July 22, 2023: An independent voter at a meet-and-greet in New Hampshire on Friday told former Vice President Mike Pence that he was concerned with his place in the polls — and with the fact that Pence is not taking on former President Donald Trump harder as he leads the field for the Republican nomination. (ABC News)

“I would love to see you be president of the United States. I’m just gonna give you an honest comment. I don’t believe you will ever be until the day you stand up to that man,” Tom Loughlin, a 77-year-old who lives part-time in New Hampshire, told Pence in reference to Trump. “Maybe you’re too good a Christian to ever do that.”

“Well, I don’t know about too good a Christian. Some people think we did a fair amount of standing up two and a half years ago,” Pence said, bringing some to applaud.

“I joined the ticket because there was a conservatives and we did, …but honestly, I think he makes no such promise today,” he continued, laying out their differences on foreign policy, entitlement reform, and abortion regulation at the federal level.

“I’m not interested in trading insults with my old friend. I’m not. And some people think that’s the way to win the presidency. I don’t. But laying out the choice for the American people. We’ve been doing it. We’ll keep doing it,” he said.

New Hampshire is one of the smallest states in the nation, with a population of roughly 1.4 million people and just two representatives in the House. But to win the first-in-the-nation primary, candidates usually need to be willing to talk about national concerns, like Pence’s historic actions on Jan. 6, 2021, ahead of the Capitol riot…

…While Pence does not always bring up Jan. 6 at campaign stops, several voters across New Hampshire delivered to him the same message during his three-day-swing in the first-in-the-nation primary state this week: “Thank you for what you did on Jan. 6.”…

…As Pence pitches himself as a conservative, a Christian and a Regan-era Republican, the former vice president is struggling to qualify to make the debate stage. Neither Pence nor his campaign will say how close he is to reaching the 40,000 donors required to make the debate stage…

July 31, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott (S.C.) are boasting their support for national abortion bans as fellow GOP presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis spars with anti-abortion activists. (The Hill)

The Susan B. Anthony List, a conservative anti-abortion organization, took aim at DeSantis on Monday for his position on abortion and sidestepping of whether or not he would support a federal ban on abortion. The DeSantis campaign later labeled the organization as a Washington, D.C., interest group, saying its attack on DeSantis was an example of “political games.”

Pence and Scott, both GOP presidential candidates, took the chance Monday to reaffirm their stances on abortion as DeSantis pushed back on the Susan B. Anthony List. Pence, sharing a link to the organization’s statement about the Florida governor, said that he will be a “champion” of the anti-abortion movement if elected to the White House…

“When I am President #PRoLife Americans will have a champion in the White House! In the Dobbs decision, the question of abortion was returned to the states AND the American people,” Pence posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I will always champion protections for the unborn in states across the Country and in our nation’s Capital!”

“Republicans should not be retreating on life. We need a national 15-week limit to stop blue states from pushing abortion on demand,” Scott posted on X. “@sbaprolife defends the most fundamental right: life. Without life, nothing else matters. It’s not a special interest. It’s the only interest.”

August 3, 2023: 2024 GOP presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence said his campaign received more than 7,400 donations since the release of former President Trump’s most recent indictment, according to a Pence adviser. (The Hill)

Pence’s former running mate faces four counts in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump’s pressure campaign to get Pence to overturn the election during its certification in Congress, which resulted in threats of violence and death against the former vice president, was directly mentioned in the indictment…

…In a statement responding to the indictment on Tuesday and obtained by The Hill, Pence said the former president’s legal woes distracted from President Biden’s “disastrous economic policies.”

“I will have more to say about the government’s case after reviewing the indictment,” the statement read. “The former president is entitled to the presumption of innocence but with this indictment, his candidacy means more talk about January 6th and more distractions.”

August 7, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence has qualified to make the stage at the first Republican primary debate, his campaign confirmed Monday night. (The Hill)

Pence’s campaign surpassed the 40,000 individual donors require by the Republican National Committee (RNC) to make the debate stage. The former vice president had previously met the polling requirement, which stipulated that candidates be polling at a minimum of 1 percent in a combination of national polls or early primary state polls.

The first debate will be hosted by Fox News on Aug. 23 in Milwaukee, Wis.

Pence joins several other candidates who have qualified for the event: Former President Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott (S.C), former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.

Trump has indicated he may skip the debate, however, citing his large lead in the polls…

September 13, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence responded to remarks made by Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) that cast doubt on Pence’s viability in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, saying Wednesday, “I’m running to win.” (The Hill)

Romney, who announced earlier in the day that he would not be seeking reelection in the Beehive State, told The Washington Post in an interview ahead of his announcement that “I don’t think [Pence] has… any delusions that he’s going to become the nominee.”

“I think he’s running for other reasons. One, to repair his legacy … What he’s saying is important to be said… I’m glad he’s running and saying those things. I respect that.” Romney added.

But Pence disputed that sentiment during a NewsNation town hall with anchor Leland Vittert. NewsNation is owned by Nexstar Media Group, which also owns The Hill.

“I’m running for president of the United States because I think this country’s in a lot of trouble,” Pence said when asked about Romney’s comments. “And I’m running to win.”…

…Like other 2024 GOP contenders, the former vice president struggled to close the gap against former President Trump in the polls. Trump has remained the clear front-runner in the race, despite mounting legal challenges.

September 13, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday defended his opposition to surgical and chemical gender transition procedures and gender-affirming policies being taught in schools during an emotional exchange with an audience member at a town hall in Iowa. (The Hill)

During a NewsNation town hall, a prospective Iowa caucus-goer named Melissa told Pence they were a member of the LGBTQ community and have transgender individuals in their family. Melissa cited the wave of anti-LGBTQ bills being passed the state level and asked Pence through tears what he would do to protect the transgender community from “historically high levels of violence.”

Pence said he was “moved” by the questioner’s emotion, and he vowed to protect the rights of every American if elected.

“I hope you will also hear my heart on this. For me, what adults do in their lives, decisions that they make, including transgender adults, is one thing. But for kids under the age of 18 – there’s a reason why we don’t let you drive until you’re 16,” Pence said.

“And I hope you hear in my strong sentiment on this – the gender ideology that’s being taught and has been taught in elementary schools and promoted among many of our kids, and when it comes to surgical or chemical procedures, I really believe we’ve got to protect our kids from decisions that will affect them for the balance of their lives,” he continued.

Melissa responded that they are a social worker and have worked with kids in their profession for years. Melissa said they started an organization for LGBTQ youth in their hometown.

“I have worked with kids as young as 5 years old that have gender nonconforming and identities that are transgender, and I’ve raised one,” they said. “And to hear somebody tell me that it’s not OK for young children to make decisions about their gender identity and to ask school officials for support, protection, and help is appalling.”…

October 28, 2023: Former Vice President Mike Pence announced Saturday that he is suspending his 2024 campaign for the White House. (The Hill)

“It’s become clear to me it’s not my time,” Pence said during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition Conference. “I’ve decided to suspend my campaign for president effective today.”

“To the American people, I say: this is not my time, but it is still your time,” he added.

The former Indiana governor said that while he’s leaving the campaign trail, he will “never stop fighting to elect principled Republican leaders to every office in the land.”…

January 16, 2024: Former Vice President Mike Pence attacked Trump as a matter of necessity, given his pivotal decision to certify the results of the 2020 election against Trump’s wishes. But he was never able to successfully step out from the shadow of Trump, his onetime running mate with whom he has severed ties. (Vox)…

…Pence’s decision to drop out before the first primaries seems to be a bid to preserve his capital as a leader in the conservative movement, and an acknowledgement that his platform was out of step with his party at large. His candidacy tried to appeal to religious conservatives’ views on abortion, religious liberty, and education. Though the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade dampened GOP gains in the midterms, Pence, a prominent evangelical Christian, only doubled down on his anti-abortion rhetoric. He has called for a national abortion ban and has thrown his weight behind a proposal by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that would ban abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy and a ban on abortion pills…

December 8, 2023: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s ascendancy in the GOP presidential race has brought new financial support, but also newfound attention from her rivals trying to topple former President Donald Trump. (CNN)

But in the face of increased scrutiny, Haley’s allies increasingly are thinking about the long game. She needs to exceed expectations in debates and in the first few primary contests next year, they say, as she attempts to outlasts outer candidates. Chief among those rivals? Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had initially been seen as the main alternative to Trump, before Haley started to rise in the polls and secured the endorsement last week of the influential conservative network, Americans for Prosperity Action…

…Haley’s team was happy with the debate performance, according to two Republican sources with knowledge of their thinking, even if she didn’t have a clear breakout moment like in past debates. She doesn’t need to win a shouting match, these Republicans said. One of those sources explained that Haley and her team “want the section of primary voters who want ‘normal’ to see she was being presidential.”

The voters who love the shouting … aren’t really up for grabs” for Haley, that Republican added…

…During the debate, Haley doubled down on accepting donations from any donor, even Democrats. Top Democrat donor Reid Hoffman said this week that he has donated to a super PAC supporting Haley. The former South Carolina governor stressed that that wouldn’t compromise her conservative bonafides. But one seasoned Republican strategist warned that comments like that would hurt Haley in the long run and weigh her down among the non-Trump candidates…

…Some Republicans are casting Haley as a moderate, said Republican strategist Gail Gitcho, even though she herself aligns more with conservatives. Going forward, Haley will have to allay the perception that she cannot appeal to the primary voters and donors she needs to win the nomination…

December 10, 2023: Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said in a Sunday interview that 2024 GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is the “only one that has a shot” at beating former President Trump for the Republican nomination, but he declined to endorse any candidate specifically. (The Hill)

“Well, because if I endorsed them, that would be the kiss of death. I’m not going to do that,” Romney said, laughing, on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” when asked why he has not endorsed anyone in the GOP race yet. “Shall I endorse the person I like least right now?”

Romney praised former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s performance, but suggested it’s pretty clear Christie does not have a strong chance at the nomination, as opposed to Haley, who might.

“I’m not gonna be endorsing President Trump, obviously. I’ve made that very clear. Look, Chris Christie has done a terrific job so far. I think his being in the race has kept Donald Trump from coming to the debates, because I think Donald Trump recognized if he want to the debate with Chris Christie, Chris Christie would reveal him for what he was. And Trump would be badly hurt. So he stayed out,” Romney said about Christie.

“Nikki Haley, she’s rising. Right now, I think she’s the only one that has a shot at becoming the nominee other than President Trump. It’s a long shot on her part, but she’s the only one that has a shot. So we’ll see,” he said…

December 12, 2023: New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is set to endorse Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Tuesday evening at her town hall event in Manchester, according to reports (The Hill)

Sununu’s potential endorsement is key in the early voting state, where Haley and other candidates have six weeks to catch up to former President Trump, who is the front-runner.

Haley, who served as ambassador to the United Nations, has been gaining momentum in the polls thanks to several strong debate performances.

Sununu is a vocal Trump critic who has yet to throw support behind any candidate competing against the former president. He spent time on the campaign trail with Haley, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R).

Sununu, who is serving his fourth term as New Hampshire’s governor, previously mulled a bid for the GOP nomination himself, but opted to stay out of the race in June…

…In a November poll, 46 percent of registered Republicans or undeclared New Hampshire voters said they would vote for Trump and 18 percent said they would cast their ballot for Haley in a hypothetical primary race…

December 17, 2023: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is gaining some momentum on former President Trump among New Hampshire Republican voters, though Trump still holds a strong lead in the early nominating contest. (The Hill)

The latest CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday found Haley has emerged as a top alternative to the former president, consolidating much of the non-Trump vote. Among likely GOP primary voters, 29 percent say they would vote for the former South Carolina governor, putting her 15 points behind Trump.

Eleven percent say they would vote for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and 10 percent say they would vote for former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. No other candidate received more than 10 percent.

Regarding who can beat President Biden, 51 percent of voters said Trump would “definitely” do so, while 32 percent said the same for Haley — underscoring just how strong of a hold the former president has on Republicans…

…Haley is overwhelmingly seen as the most likable, receiving 55 percent of the vote. DeSantis falls in second, holding 37 percent of the vote, while Trump and Vivek Ramaswamy are tied for third, holding 36 percent of the vote.

A majority of voters also said that Haley is the most reasonable of the candidates; 51 percent voted for the former U.N. ambassador, while 37 percent said DeSantis was the most reasonable. Trump falls in third with 36 percent.

Despite Haley’s likability, Trump is seen as more prepared — but only by 1 point. The poll found that 54 percent say Trump seems the most prepared, while 53 percent named Hall. DeSantis was third, holding 44 percent of the vote…

December 17, 2023: Donald Trump still leads in New Hampshire, but Nikki Haley has consolidated much of the non-Trump vote and has emerged as the top alternative to him there. Among the top candidates, Haley gets the best marks on being seen as “likable” and “reasonable,” and she runs nearly even with Trump on being “prepared” — notable, considering he held the presidency. She has been running in part on electability and is now seen as the most electable of Trump’s challengers (CNBC News)

Meanwhile, Trump has consolidated his already commanding lead in Iowa, where likely caucus-goers overwhelmingly see him as a “strong leader,” where his backers say he “represents Iowa values,” and where he is boosted by an electorate in which nearly half say they are part of the MAGA movement…

…Despite leading by double digits, Trump isn’t seen as the most likable or even reasonable candidate in New Hampshire. He does dominate on being seen as a “strong leader” by primary voter, and on the view that he would beat Joe Biden.

Haley has been given a boost by New Hampshire’s more moderate electoral relative to Iowa. She has made inroads among self-described moderates and independents, running close to Trump among them now. (Independents can, and often do, vote in the GOP primary.) And its these groups who express more openness, in principle, to a candidate dissimilar to Trump, if he isn’t the nominee…

December 26, 2023: It’s the day after Christmas and the countdown to primary season is on. It’s just three weeks before the Iowa Caucuses, the first battle in the leadup to the 2024 election. (The Hill)

Former President Trump is the overwhelming favorite in Iowa and for the GOP nomination, but in New Hampshire, which will hold a primary just eight days after the Iowa contest, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is gaining on Trump. Trump has a healthy 17-percentage-point lead on Haley in the aggregation of polls kept by Decision Desk and The Hill, but that’s down significantly since the beginning of December.

As recently as Dec. 6, Trump had a 27-point lead over Haley. And in a surprise poll, released at the end of last week by the American Research Group, Trump had just a four-point lead on Haley. Almost every primary season throws up surprises, writes The Hill’s Niall Stanage, and an extra measure of volatility is added to the mix this time around because of the legal troubles hanging over Trump’s head…

December 28, 2023: Nikki Haley on Thursday sought to clarify her comments about the Civil War one day after a voter in New Hampshire called her out for not mentioning slavery as a cause of the war. (CNN)

“I mean, of course the Civil War was about slavery,” Haley told radio host Jack Health Thursday morning.

“But what’s the lesson in all of that?” she continued. “That we need to make sure that every person has freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do and be anything they want to be without anyone or government getting in the way. That was the goal of what that was at. Yes, I know it was about slavery. I’m from the South, of course I know it’s about slavery.”

Her comments come amid intense backlash inside and outside the GOP after Haley told a New Hampshire town hall crowd that the Civil War was about the government interfering in people’s freedoms.

“I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do,” Haley had said Wednesday in visit to Berlin (New Hampshire) — the first of five events in the Granite State as she attempts to close the gap with Republican front-runner Donald Trump ahead of next month’s primary…

January 6, 2023: The stage is literally set here at the University of Alabama for the final GOP debate of 2023. (The Hill)

The stakes are huge for the two highest-polling candidates who will appear: former United Nation’s Ambassador Nikki Haley and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Haley has been on the rise, in part thanks to strong debate performances. She looks to be on the brink of supplanting DeSantis for second place.

DeSantis can’t let that happen, as it would shatter one of the central planks of his candidacy — that he is the most viable alternative to former President Trump.

DeSantis and Haley are way behind Trump. The former president is 46 points in the clear in the national polling average maintained by the data site FiveThirtyEight.

Haley and DeSantis need to do more than gain an edge over each other at the debate Wednesday evening: They need to find a true game-changing moment.

That will be an uphill battle, but it’s not impossible.

For a start, this will be the least cluttered debate stage so far. Only two other candidates have qualified and will participate — businessman Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie.

Trump, who would easily qualify, has declined to participate in any debates so far…

January 6, 2023: Nikki Haley refused to take the bait from rival Vivek Ramaswamy during Wednesday night’s debate in Alabama, shrugging off an attack from the conservative entrepreneur. (The Hill)

“No,” Haley said, when asked by co-moderator Eliana Johnson if she wanted to respond to Ramaswamy’s attacks against her. “It’s not worth my time to respond to him.”

Cheers could be heard from the audience following her response.

Ramaswamy had accused Haley of having “a corrupt problem” and held up a pad of paper with “NIKKI = CORRUPT” written out on it, prompting a mix of boos and cheers from the audience of the Tuscaloosa event.

He called her “a puppet” and accused her of “using identity politics” as “a form of intellectual fraud.”…

…Ramaswamy and Haley have sparred in firefly back-and-forth exchanges during the previous debates, and Ramaswamy took the fourth debate as another opportunity to come out swinging against the former U.N. ambassador.

Haley has seen boost from her prior debate performances and the fourth debate has been seen as key for her effort to surge ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and secure the second-place slot in the party’s primary field — led by former President Trump — once voting starts in January.

January 8, 2023: Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley is increasingly targeting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on environmental issues assailing his policy record on climate and energy in his state at multiple GOP presidential debates as the two jostle for second in the party’s primary. (The Hill)

DeSantis appeared to come out ahead of Haley in Wednesday night’s fourth Republican debate, hosted by The Hill’s sister news organization NewsNation, which saw the Florida governor go on the offensive agains the onetime UN ambassador and the subject of his environmental record go unmentioned. That marked a notable contrast with the previous two debates, in which Haley mounted a number of sharp attacks against DeSantis on the issue as she worked to build momentum both in the polls and among anti-Trump donors as the leading alternative to the former president.

She broached the subject at the second Republican debate in September, accusing the Florida Governor of undermining his own presidential campaign pledges to ramp up fossil fuel production with his policies as governor. Specifically, she pointed to his opposition to fracking, the process of fracturing rock to extract natural gas, as well as offshore drilling in the Sunshine State.

DeSantis countered that Floridians voted in a ballot initiative to ban offshore drilling, with Haley in turn pointing to his opposition to fracking in Florida independent of any ballot initiative.

Haley went further in the third debate, saying DeSantis “was praised by the Sierra Club, and you’re trying to make up for it and act like you weren’t a liberal when it comes to the environment. You were, you always have been, just own it if that’s the case, but don’t keep saying you’re something you’re not.”…

May 18, 2023: Iowa – GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley has a message for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R): “Welcome to the race. We’ve been waiting.” (The Hill)

Haley, in an exclusive on-camera interview with The Hill at a campaign stop on the banks of the Mississippi, added, “I’m glad that he’s going to be out there, because I want the American people to see who they’re choosing from.”

Haley was reading to the news report that the Florida governor would finally officially enter the presidential race next week.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, has been running for president since February and has at times jabbed other potential candidates for their reticence to enter the race.

Haley has one similarity with DeSantis, however – she too is willing to plunge into the most contentious battles in the culture wars…

…The only female candidate in the race, Haley has staked out a more nuanced position than some on abortion. While she signed a 20-week ban on abortion as governor of South Carolina, she does not currently back a federal ban.

Pressed on whether she would back such a ban if it were politically possible, she contended: “It’s not realistic.”

“The idea that a Republican president is going to go ban all abortions is not true,” she said. “So I think we have to be honest with the American people, not scare them, but tell the truth and let them know exactly what is truly debatable and what’s not.”…

May 15, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s husband will set out on a deployment with the South Caroline National Guard to Africa in the coming weeks, according to a person familiar with the deployment. (The Hill)

…Michael Haley’s deployment with the State National Guard will be in support of the United States Africa Command. He will likely remain on deployment through the spring of 2024…

…Michael Haley is currently a major in the South Carolina National Guard. He joined the military branch in 2006 as an officer. In 2023, he deployed to Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.

His deployment comes as Nikki Haley continues to barnstorm through early presidential nominating states as part of her presidential campaign. Haley will attend Sen. Joni Ernst’s (R-Iowa) annual Roast and Ride event with a number of other Republican presidential hopefuls Saturday and will participate in a CNN town hall Sunday…

June 17, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley wished her husband farewell at a ceremony Saturday as he starts a yearlong deployment with the South Carolina Army National Guard. (The Hill)

Maj. Michael Haley, the husband of the former ambassador to the United Nations, is being sent as a staff officer with the 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade in the Horn of Africa.

The ceremony was for about 200 soldiers at The Citadel, a military college in Charleston.

“He’s always been my rock,” Haley said after the ceremony. “We have both lived a life of service, and so when he goes off to deploy, my support is completely with him. If I happen to be running for president, his support is completely with me.”…

…Nikki and Michael Haley have been married for 26 years. He has consistently been present at rallies she has held so far during her candidacy. The campaign has said their son, Nalin, will take over the role Michael has served…

July 24, 2023: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley said she would support former President Trump if he becomes the Republican nominee for president in 2024. (The Hill)

But she also said she doesn’t believe the former president can win a general election.

Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” Monday that the country needs a “new generational leader” but added she would back Trump if he wins the primary.

“I would support him because I am not going to have a President Kamala Harris. We can’t afford that. That is not going to happen,” she said.

Haley has previously sharply criticized President Biden’s age, arguing that he would not live to be 86 years old, which would be his age at the end of a second term. She has said reelecting Biden could lead to Harris becoming president…

July 27, 2023: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is pushing back against fellow White House hopeful Chris Christie (R) claims that she and some other candidates do not call out former President Trump enough. (The Hill)

“Well, I’m not obsessively anti-Trump like he is,” Haley said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “I talk about policies,” she said, pointing to times she has “disagreed with Trump” including over Jan. 6, government spending, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Christie, a former governor of New Jersey, has criticized 2024 Republican presidential candidates on multiple occasions for not taking aim at the former president. In April, Christie compared the candidates’ treatment of Trump to that of Lord Voldemort, a character from the Harry Potter series who is so feared people do not speak his name…

August 31, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley reiterated her call for competency tests for older politicians after Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) appeared to enter a catatonic state. (MEDIAITE)

McConnell froze on Wednesday after a reporter asked if he is running for reelection in 2026…

…Appearing on Thursday’s edition of The Story on Fox News, Haley offered her reaction.

“It’s sad,” she said. “No one should feel good about seeing that any more than we should feel good about seeing Dianne Feinstein, any more than we should feel good about a lot of what’s happening or seeing Joe Biden’s decline. What I will say is, right now, the Senate is the most privileged nursing home in the country. I mean, Mitch McConnell has done some great things and he deserves credit. But you have to know when to leave.”

Haley then called for term limits and cognitive testing…

September 15, 2023: While Nikki Haley was on the debate stage in Milwaukee last month, her Iowa state director’s phone was blowing up. (NBC News)

“Just from start to end during the debate, I got more than 400 texts and email from different people saying, “I’m in,'” Bill Mackey told NBC News, saying he heard from many Iowa voters that saw her standout performance as “their moment of saying, ‘OK, I’ve seen enough.”

It’s with that new level of attention and expectation that Haley returns to Iowa Friday – her first swing through the Hawkeye State in several weeks, exactly four months ahead of the Jan. 15 caucuses. But the primary debate’s impact has already been visible elsewhere: At two separate events in South Carolina, Haley attracted more than 1,000 attendees – exceeding both expectations and venue capacity. Her campaign raked in over $1 million in fundraising in the days immediately after the debate. And a new Monmouth University-Washington Post poll showed her pulling away from the pack into second place in her home state, though still well behind Donald Trump…

…The former South Carolina governor has done 36 events in Iowa in her seven months as a candidate – the most amount the 2024 hopefuls, according to an NBC News review of candidate schedules – and she’ll add another seven this weekend…

November 20, 2023: Of all of Donald Trump’s distant challenges for the GOP nomination, Nikki Haley has emerged as perhaps the most viable alternative – rising in the polls and raking in donor dollars on the strength of debate performances in which she registered as more reasonable than most of her rivals. But in an appearance in Iowa over the weekend, the former South Carolina governor made it clear she’s cut from the same cloth as her fellow Republicans, including on abortion. (Vanity Fair)

…Haley, a former Trump administration official, had a stand-out moment in the third GOP primary debate where she called to “find consensus” on abortion: “As much as I’m pro-life, I don’t judge anyone for being pro-choice, and I don’t want them to judge me for being pro-life,” Haley said. “We don’t need to divide America over this issue anymore.”

Of course, Haley has good reason to want the issue to be less charged: The day before that Miami debate, voters in off-year races across the country once again expressed their displeasure with the GOP’s anti-abortion extremism at the ballot box, in what President Joe Biden and the Democrats hope is a preview of next fall’s general election. Haley’s comparatively soft rhetoric around abortion on November 8 wasn’t a statement of principle so much as it was an effort to find less politically-damaging ways to talk about the issue…

December 2, 2023: GOP hopeful Nikki Haley faces a moment of truth in the next primary debate Wednesday in Alabama: Can she seize on her momentum and put in a top-level performance that will turn her into a real rival for the presidential nomination to former President Trump? (The Hill)

The former United Nation’s ambassador has seen boosts from her previous debate performances, and another standout showing could propel her ahead of Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who has long been considered Trump’s closest rival.

Given Trump’s significant lead over the rest of the GOP field, all eyes are on the race for second place – with just more than a month before 2024 voting kicks off with the Iowa caucuses in mid-January…

…Haley got another boost last week when Americans for Prosperity Action, the conservative network led by billionaire Charles Koch, backed her 2024 bid. JPMorgam Chase CEO Jamie Dimon also called for Democrats to help Haley in her bid…

…The fourth debate – which is being hosted and broadcast by NewsNation and is being held in Tuscaloosa – is also a pivotal moment for DeSantis.

…The Republican National Committee (RNC) hasn’t yet announced which candidates have met their heightened criteria for the fourth debate, but Haley, DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy appear to have qualified. Chris Christie’s team has said the former New Jersey governor has also met the donor criteria.

Trump has skipped the debate stages so far, and plans to forgo the next…

December 8, 2023: Home Depot co-founder and billionaire Ken Langone put his support behind GOP hopeful Nikki Haley on Friday, calling her approach to the 2024 election “smart.” (The Hill)…

…The backing from Langone, who endorsed former President Trump in his 2016 White House campaign, comes after Haley secured an endorsement from another top donor: the Koch-affiliated Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Action. The organization announced their support last month, making the first time a deep-pocketed group has endorsed a GOP candidate in a presidential primary…

…Haley’s endorsements have given her a leg up on DeSantis, who was long seen as Trump’s biggest rival in the race. But, despite her best efforts and donors, skepticism remains over whether she can truly overtake Trump, who is in the lead by double digits in national polling.

December 9, 2023: Nikki Haley is seeking to rebound after a debate performance in Alabama that drew a mixed reception from Republicans a little more than a month out from the Iowa caucuses. (The Hill)

Haley went into the debate, which was hosted by The Hill’s sister news organization NewsNation, with high expectations after several strong debate performances gave her a burst of momentum in recent months. It was immediately clear during the Wednesday night event that the former U.N. ambassador was the candidate to take on, with rivals – including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) – hurling attacks at her right out of the gate as they vie to be the main alternative to former President Trump in the Republican presidential primary.

While observers said Haley didn’t have a terrible showing in Tuscaloosa, Ala., many said she failed to stand out like she did in previous debates, potentially threatening her standing as she and DeSantis look to shore up the most support among Republican voters wanting to move on from Trump…

…DeSantis had long been seen as the party’s best Trump alternative, but Haley has surged in recent weeks, threatening the Florida governor’s runner-up status. Haley has been gaining on DeSantis in Iowa and has far surpassed him in New Hampshire, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages of each state…

…Haley’s campaign maintained she left the event in a strong position, pointing to a CNN focus group of Iowa voters that voted Haley as the winner. The Wall Street Journal also reported that Haley was the most searched-for candidate on Google during the debate…

…Haley and DeSantis both would benefit from candidates like Ramaswamy and Christie to start dropping out, strategists noted…

December 15, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley announced Friday that she’ll take part in the CNN presidential debate slated for next month in Iowa, just days before the state’s GOP caucus kicks off the presidential nominating cycle. (The Hill)

“The first four debates have been great for our campaign and for voters, and we look forward to the fifth in Iowa,” Haley said in a statement.

The former U.N. ambassador also called on former President Trump, who has skipped the four debates held so far, to take part in the debate.

“As the debate stage continues to shrink, it’s getting harder for Donald Trump to hide,” Haley said.

Trump, the GOP front-runner for the nomination, has cited his significant lead over competitors as a reason for not participating – and they’ve taken jabs at his absence during the events.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has also said he plans to take part in the Iowa program. Other candidates haven’t directly confirmed they’ll participate in the Hawkeye State event, which also requires them to clear a high polling threshold…

…CNN will host its Jan. 10 debate in Iowa five days before the [Republican] caucus, and announced plans for another in New Hampshire on Jan. 21, just before the Jan. 23 primary. ABC is planning a Jan. 18 debate in the Granite State.

December 15, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley dismissed an invitation from Fox News Host Sean Hannity to debate fellow GOP primary candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. (The Hill)

“I’ve debated him four times. I love debates. I have no issue wit that,” Haley said when asked by Hannity if she would participate in a one-on-one with DeSantis. “But quite honestly, the person I want to debate is Donald Trump. If you can get him on your show, that’s who I want to debate. That’s who we’re looking at.”

Former President Trump, the race’s front-runner, has so far not participated in any of the four Republican presidential primary debates, citing his large lead over the rest of the field…

December 20, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley expressed her opposition Wednesday to the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling to disqualify former President Trump from the state ballot, arguing the decision is “truly unthinkable.”

“The idea that judges are going to take it upon themselves to decided who can and can’t be on the ballot is truly unthinkable,” Haley said in an interview with Fox New’s Martha MacCallum. “And I think the people of Colorado should be furious.”

Colorado’s high court handed down a ruling stating that Trump should be prevented from appearing on the ballot under the 14th Amendment’s insurrection clause, which states those who took oaths to support the Constitution cannot engage in rebellion against it.

The court’s 4-3 ruling states Trump engaged in an insurrection by falsely claiming election fraud and rallying his supporters to go to the Capitol prior to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, and rules the office of the presidency falls under the insurrection clause.

Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, emphasized she will defeat Trump “on [her] own and doesn’t need a judge to remove him from the ballot.

“I don’t think [Trump] should be president, I think I should be president,” Haley said Wednesday. “I think our country would do a lot better if I was, but we should have this race fair and square with him on the ballot, just like everybody else.”

“And the idea that we go and say, just because these liberal justices don’t like him, they want to take him off the ballot – that’s not democracy, that’s not who we are. That’s not what we need to do.”…

December 20, 2023: Nikki Haley is facing a barrage of sexist attacks in her bid to become the GOP nominee for president, underscoring the hurdles women face when running for the highest office in the country. (The Hill)

The 51-year-old former United Nations ambassador is experiencing surging momentum as the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary near, tailoring her pitch around her credentials to beat President Biden.

But the gendered attacks from her male opponents also raise the question of how they might impact her standing before voting begins in the critical early primary states.

“There’s no winning, no matter what approach she chooses,” said Jennifer Horn, a former New Hampshire GoP chairwoman. “Whether she decides to ignore it and continue or just advance her message or to stand up and push back strongly, it’s a lose lose.”…

…Haley, who is still polling behind former President Trump, has nonetheless risen among other rivals after she used several strong televised debate performances to position herself as a viable alternative to the 45th president. On the national stage, she came out strongly against Vivek Ramaswamy, a biotech executive who repeatedly used gender-based critiques against her…

…The survey by CBS News shows her closing in on Trump and outpacing him as more “likable,” a historically tough metric for female candidates to overcome. She’s also seen as the most “reasonable,” according to the survey, and is just 1 point below Trump in preparedness for higher office, earning 53 percent to his 54 percent…

December 20, 2023: Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley tied with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Quinnipiac University’s newest poll of the GOP presidential primary race, marking the latest sign of Haley’s emerging threat to the Florida governor. (The Hill)

The new poll, published by Quinnipiac University on Wednesday, found 67 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters support President Trump, while DeSantis and Haley each received 11 percent support.

Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s support fell into the single digits, with 4 percent choosing Ramaswamy and 3 percent choosing Christie.

The poll marked Trump and Haley’s highest levels of support and DeSantis’ lowest point since Quinnipiac University began the national surveys in February 2023. In February, DeSantis received 36 percent support, pollsters noted…

…Haley has continued to rise in the polls in recent weeks, and in some places, – notably New Hampshire – she has surpassed DeSantis’s once-comfortable second-place spot…

…Trump has continued to maintain a strong lead over his GOP rivals in recent polls, despite four ongoing criminal cases, a civil fraud trial and, as of Tuesday, a ruling from the Colorado Supreme Court that bars him from appearing on the state’s ballot.

January 9, 2024: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has trimmed former President Donald Trump’s lead in the Republican primary race in New Hampshire to single digits, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire. (CNN)

Trump still holds a meaningful lead in the poll, with the backing of 39% of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire compared to Haley’s 32%. The rest of the field lags far behind in the poll, with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 12%, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 8%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 5% and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson at less than 1%.

Support for Haley has risen 12 percentage points since the last CNN/UNH poll in November, continuing an upward trajectory that began last summer, while her opponents — including Trump — have seen their numbers remain stable or tick slightly downward since autumn.

Haley’s support has grown dramatically among those voters reregistered as undeclared, New Hampshire’s term for independent registrants — she’s up 18 points with this group since November. It has also grown 20 points among those who are ideologically moderate. Those gains come amid push from her campaign in the state, including an endorsement last month from New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu. The Granite State’s GOP primary is January 23.

The strength of Haley’s challenge to Trump in the state speaks to the contours of New Hampshire’s primary electorate, in which those more moderate and less staunchly partisan voters make up a larger share of participants than they do in Iowa’s first-in-the-nation caucuses, which are happening next week. Trump has cross the 50% mark in most recent polling on the Iowa caucuses, and he holds wider majorities in national polls on the Republican nomination…

January 10, 2024: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley called the argument from former President Trump’s attorney that the assassination of political rivals is protected by presidential immunity “ridiculous.” (The Hill)

Haley said at the CNN GOP presidential debate Wednesday the common sense needs to be considered when evaluating what is protected under presidential immunity and what is not.

“That’s ridiculous. That’s absolutely ridiculous. We need to use some common sense. You can’t go and kill a political rival and then claim immunity from a president,” she said.

Her criticism came after Trump attorney John Sauer argued before a panel of D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals judges that the president would be protected from prosecution if they ordered the SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival if the president were not impeached and removed by the Senate first.

“He would have to be impeached and convicted,” Sauer said Tuesday.

He was responding to a hypothetical question from a judge about the limits of presidential immunity. Trump’s legal team argued the former president should be shielded from prosecution in special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation because he is immune…

January 10, 2024: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley hit Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis over the state of his campaign at the CNN Republican debate in Des Moines on Wednesday. (The Hill)

“The best way to tell about a candidate is to see how they run their campaign.” Haley said. “He has blown through 150 million dollars,” she added, referring to DeSantis. “I don’t even know how you do that.”

“He has nothing to show for it. He’s spent more money on private planes than he has on commercials trying to get Iowans to vote for him. If you can’t manage a campaign, how are you going to manage a country?” Haley said to applause.

Haley and DeSantis spent most of Wednesday’s debate hitting each other over policy and lobbing insults. In his opening remarks, DeSantis referred to Haley as a “mealy-mouthed politician.” DeSantis also painted Haley as a “corporatist” Republican, who is beholden to donors…

January 11, 2024: Nikki Haley faces the challenge of surpassing former President Trump in what has become a close contest in New Hampshire even with Chris Christie now out of the race. (The Hill)

Christie’s decision to drop out less than a week before the Iowa caucuses is the latest development to boost Haley as she looks to consolidate support after rising in the polls and putting up impressive fundraising totals.

But although Christie and Haley were likely competing for similar voters, the former New Jersey governor’s supporter may not all automatically get behind her, giving her work to do.

“We’re assuming there’s going to be a lot of overlap between these two constituencies, but of course, not every Christie voter is going to go for her, and of course, some Christie voters may break to other candidates,” said Ashley Koning, the director of Rutgers University’s Eagleton Center for Public Interest Polling…

…Haley is generally seen as one of the more moderate candidates in the race, suggesting those who backed Christie might migrate to her. Indeed, some polls have shown Christie supporters, who are largely looking to have the GOP move on from Trump, indicating they see Haley as their second choice.

An Emerson College poll released Thursday showed Trump leading Haley in New Hampshire, 44 percent to 28 percent, with Christie in third at 12 percent. Of Christie’s supporters, 52 percent listed Haley as their second choice, far more than any other candidate.

Haley has surged in the polls in recent months, and some surveys have shown her even competitive with Trump…

January 16, 2024: Trump’s former US ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has framed herself as a younger, more moderate candidate than Trump, who can win in a general election. “Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change,” Haley said in her announcement video. “It’s time for a new generation of leadership. (Vox)

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley is centering her pitch for the presidency on foreign policy and bridging the gap between MAGA and more traditional GOP politics…

…If Haley prevails, she would be the first woman and first Asian American to win the GOP nomination for president, adding to the list of firsts she has already achieved: South Carolina’s first woman governor and the first Indian American to serve in a statewide office there. She’s currently second or third, depending on the polling average consulted, but, like DeSantis, still regularly polls about 50 percentage points behind Trump…

January 20, 2024: Former President Trump easily won the Iowa caucuses last week and is leading nearly every New Hampshire poll gearing up to Tuesday’s primary, but in an arena filled with fired-up loyalists in the Granite State on Saturday, all he wanted to discuss was his GOP rival, Nikki Haley. (The Hill)…

…In recent days, Trump has been hurling insults at Haley, who has been steadily closing the gap in New Hampshire. In the past two months, she cut Trump’s lead in the state in by half. Trump has an 11 percent lead in the Granite State, according to The Hill and Decision Desk HQ’s polling average. Two months ago, he had a 22-point lead.

“Nikki Haley is using radical Democrat money to fund the radical Democrat campaign operation that she’s running,” Trump told supporters during the Saturday rally…

… “Almost every politician from the state of South Carolina is endorsing me,” Trump said as a slight to Haley, who is a former governor of the state. South Carolina is also next major contest after New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

In addition to the Palmetto State politicians on state, Trump also secured the endorsement of her home state’s senator, Tim Scott (R-S.C.), on Friday. Haley nominated Scott to the Senate when she was governor and lobbied for his endorsement when he dropped out of the 2024 GOP presidential race.

These attacks haven’t been one-sided. Haley has dropped her reluctance to criticize her former boss and has ramped up attacks on the former president in recent days..

February 1, 2024: GOP presidential primary candidate Nikki Haley threw some shade at rival former President Trump by way of a fake Halloween costume Thursday. (The Hill)

Haley posted to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, a picture of a photoshopped packaging for a Halloween costume labeled as the “Weakest General Election Candidate Ever” and says it includes “$50M in legal fees,” “terrible poll numbers,” “social media rants” and “temper tantrums.” It also notes that it doesn’t include a “private jet” and “Diet Coke.”

“Democrats are ecstatic about the prospect of running against Donald Trump,” Haley wrote. “They couldn’t dream up a worse general election candidate if they tried. Between his legal drama, his terrible poll numbers, and his confusion, Trump will hand Democrats a big victory.”

A poll released Wednesday found that the former president would not get the votes of a majority of a majority of swing state voters if convicted of a crime; 53 percent of respondents in the Bloomberg/Morning Consult survey said they didn’t want to vote for Trump if he is convicted in one of his various criminal cases…

February 5, 2024: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s top competition in Nevada’s state -run primary is a “none of these candidates” ballot option. (The Hill)

After tension over the presidential nominating system in the state, Nevada will hold both a primary and a Republican Party caucus this week.

Former President Trump, the GOP front-runner, is the only big name on Thursday’s caucus ballot, while Haley is the only top contender in Tuesday’s primary after other candidates, such as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott and former Vice President Mike Pence, dropped out.

Nevada law doesn’t allow for write-in candidates, but it requires voters to be offered an option to pick “none of these candidates.”

That could be a problem for Haley if Trump supporters decide to cast a protest vote in the primary.

The dueling contests come after Nevada GOP opted to stick with its long-standing caucus system, despite a new state law calling for a presidential preference primary.

State law doesn’t prohibit registered Republicans from taking part the primary and the caucus, but the state party has said only the caucus counts when it comes to allocating delegates to the national party’s convention later this year…

…The state party’s site underscores that “candidates that choose to appear in the state-run primary ballot did so knowing that the decision meant they could not earn delegates by appearing on the caucus ballots,” noting Haley by name…

The Nevada GOP also barred candidates who opted for the primary from joining the caucus contest, meaning Haley and Trump can’t directly compete in the Silver State.

The Nevada confusion prompted Haley’s team to turn its focus to South Carolina, which hosts its GOP primary later this month. The former U.N. ambassador’s campaign on Monday knocked the Nevada setup as “rigged” for Trump…

February 6, 2024: Nikki Haley is projected to lose Nevada state-run Republican presidential preference primary, according to Decision Desk HQ’s analysis of election night results, a stunning development that comes despite former President Trump’s name not being on the ballot. (The Hill)

Voters were given a choice on the ballot to select a box that said “none of these candidates,” though they couldn’t write in a name. That option is projected to win.

The former South Carolina governor is projected to come in second.

No delegates were at stake in Tuesday’s primary. Trump’s name wasn’t on the ballot because he will instead be taking part in Nevada’s GOP-run caucus Thursday. The caucus will award all of the state’s 26 delegates to the winner, who is expected to be the former president.

Still, the fact that Haley lost is a major embarrassment for the candidate who has argued she is the better general election candidate to square off against President Biden, the likely Democratic nominee, but who has struggled to chip away at Trump’s support among the Republican base…

February 24, 2024: The primary race between former President Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is growing increasingly personal as Haley remains defiant in her decision to stay in the race despite trailing Trump by double digits. (The Hill)

The changing tenor of the race was underscored this week when she choked up talking about her husband during an emotional speech in South Carolina — remarks that came days after Trump attacked her over her husband’s absence from the campaign trail.

Haley also stepped up her direct attacks against Trump in recent weeks, signaling a bitter new phase of the primary that comes as many GOP hope she will drop out so that the party can coalesce around Trump…

…On a press call on Friday, Haley’s campaign manager Betsy Ankney acknowledged that “the math is challenging.” But Ankney added that the contest is not only about who can win the party’s primary but about who can win in the general, something Haley has noted repeatedly on the campaign trail.

“Donald Trump will not win the general election,” Haley told CNN on Thursday. “You can have him win any primary you want — he will not win a general election. We will have a female president of the United States; it will either be me or it will be [Vice President] Harris.”…

February 24, 2024: Nikki Haley called comments Donald Trump made about Black people at an event Friday “disgusting” and proof Republicans would lose the presidential race if he’s the nominee. (NPR)

…Haley, speaking to reporters after casting her vote in the South Carolina primary Saturday near her home in Kiawah Island, S.C., said the comments are the latest example of a “huge warning sign” if he’s the GOP nominee.

“It’s disgusting, but that’s what happens when he goes off the teleprompter,” Haley said to reporters after voting in Kiawah Island. “That’s the chaise that comes with Donald Trump. That’s the offensiveness that’s going to happen every day between now and the general election, which is why I continue to say Donald Trump cannot win an election. He won’t.”

Haley’s message to voters is that Trump is a candidate of chaos that will only hurt the Republican Party come November…

February 25, 2024: Former President Donald Trump beat his remaining major challenger, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary Saturday, according to a race call from the Associated Press that came as polls closed statewide. (NPR)

Even though Trump won the statewide race, Haley won the counties with the two biggest cities, Columbia and Charleston. Haley, who was elected twice as governor of the state, currently owns a home in Charleston County. She also won Beaufort County home to Hilton Head. Haley was awarded three delegates in South Carolina and Trump, 47. That brings Haley’s total delegate count so far to 20. Trump has 110. The first candidate to win 1,215 delegates will win the Republican presidential nomination.

Trump has now won every contest where he was on the ballot. His win in South Carolina is not exactly a surprise, though. Trump was leading in the polls in Haley’s conservative home state throughout the entire race. The AP says that it based its race call on an analysis of a survey of primary voters that confirmed the findings of the pre-Election Day polling showing Trump far outpacing Haley…

…Haley told supporters that voters in many states will be weighing in during primary elections in the next few weeks and she will remain in the race until then

“They have the right to a real choice, not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate,” she said. “And I have a duty to give them that choice.”

Haley congratulated Trump on his win during an event in South Carolina Saturday evening.

“No matter the results, I love the people our our state,” she told her supporters.

Haley doubled down on comments made earlier this week that she would stay in the race no matter the results tonight. Her campaign is launching a “seven-figure” national ad buy ahead of Super Tuesday on March 5.

“There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative,” she said. “I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina, I would continue to run for president. I’m a woman of my word. I’m a woman of my word. I’m not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove both Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”…

…The loss is a major blow to Haley’s bid for the Republican nomination. Despite the significant money and time spent by the campaign in South Carolina, she was unable to garner enough support — including from leaders in the party. Trump remains very popular in the South and among more conservative voters in the U.S…

February 27, 2024: Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley issued her latest dire warning Tuesday about the prospect of former President Trump becoming the GOP presidential nominee, arguing it would be “suicide” for the United States. (The Hill)

Coming off of a series of disappointing primary losses to Trump, Haley told the Wall Street Journal she has “serious concerns” about the former president, when asked to reaffirm her commitment to support the GOP’s eventual nominee.

Pointing to the 91 criminal counts Trump faces across four cases, Haley told the Journal: “This may be his survival mode to pay his legal fees and get out of some sort of legal peril, but this is like suicide for our country.”

“We’ve got to realize that if we don’t have someone who can win a general election all we are doing is caving to the socialist left,” she said.

Despite ramping up her criticism of Trump in recent weeks, Haley has also said that President Biden is more dangerous than his predecessor.

Trump is also facing several civil legal penalties, including a whopping $350 million order in his New York civil fraud case, which he appealed Monday. He was also ordered to pay $83.3 million for defaming longtime writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019, after he was found liable in a previous case for sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s.

Haley, a former United Nations ambassador under Trump warned earlier this month that Trump would use the Republican National Committee as his “piggy bank” to pay for his legal expenses.

Federal elections filings released last month showed Trump spent roughly $50 million on legal costs last year, $29 million of which was spent on lawyer fees and legal consulting in the final six months of the year. The spending was spread across multiple PACs/

In an interview last week, Haley argued Trump will be in the courtroom for a large portion of the coming months, rather than on the campaign trail and said “that is not how Republicans win.”

Haley has come under increasing pressure to leave the race after a string of losses to Trump in early states. Fox News’s Bill Hemmer asked Haley last week if she sees herself as “an insurance policy” for the Republican Party if Trump is convicted or found ineligible for office before November.

“Well, what I see myself is making sure that we as Republicans do everything we can to win,” Haley responded.

March 3, 2024: Days ahead of the Super Tuesday presidential primaries, former South Carolina governor and Republican candidate Nikki Haley said in an interview Sunday she will continue in the race for the GOP nomination as long as she remains competitive. (CNBC)

In an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Haley said she is not looking “too far ahead” when asked if she would drop out of the race if she loses to frontrunner and former president Donald Trump on Super Tuesday.

“As long as we are competitive, as long as we are showing that there is a place for us, I’m going to continue to fight,” Haley said.

After primary losses in Iowa, South Carolina, and New Hampshire, Haley trails Trump in delegates with just 27 to his 247 so far. However, Haley said those primaries only partially represent who Americans will vote for on Super Tuesday. Fifteen states and one territory will vote in the primaries on Tuesday.

“You’ve only had three or four states that have voted up until now,” Haley said. “We’re a big country and we want everybody to fee like they had the opportunity vote for someone and not against someone.”

Several Trump-critical Republican senators have endorsed Haley, including Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski as her state heads to the polls Tuesday.

In an interview with NBC News Saturday, Murkowski said Haley is “a qualified, competent, capable leader at a time when the country needs them.”

Murkowski added she refuses “to accept that [Trump and Biden are] my only two choices.”

When asked if she would endorse a Trump nomination, Haley would not unequivocally say whether she is still bound by a Republican National Committee pledge to support the GOP nominee.

“No, I think I’ll make that what decision I want to make, but that’s not something I’m thinking about,” Haley said, adding that the pledge was made at the time “in order to get on the debate stage.”

March 29, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has vowed not to support former President Donald Trump in 2024, making him the first candidate in a field of potential GOP presidential candidates to explicitly say so. (Business Insider)

“I can’t help him. No way.” Christie told Axios in an interview published on Tuesday.

“Look, I just can’t. When you have the Jan. 6 choir at a rally and you show a video of it – I just don’t think that person is appropriate for the presidency,” Christie told Axios.

He was referring to “Justice for All,” a song sung by a group of men incarcerated for their suspected role in the Capitol riot. Known collectively as the J6 Prison Choir, they sang a rendition of “The Star Spangled Banner” from behind bars, with Trump adding a Voiceover of the Pledge of Allegiance…

…But Christie has distanced himself from Trump in the last year and is now a vocal Trump critic. In November, he called out other GOP politicians for being too scared to disavow Trump…

…Christie’s comments to Axios come as he mulls a 2024 presidential bid of his own – which will put him on a collision course with Trump. He told Fox News on March 23 that he will “probably make a decision in the next 60 days on what to do or not to do.”

April 16, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said the various investigations into former President Trump make a hypothetical GOP presidential primary win “uncertain”. (The Hill)

“No, I don’t think that the field [is] starting to look like Trump,” Christie said on ABC’s “This Week.” “In fact, you know, when you’re indicted in one place, and you’re facing investigations [in] two others, it makes you at least an uncertain winner. But again, he’s the former president. So of course he’s going to be the frontrunner. He has the best name ID in the race, of anybody else running, but you already have four other candidates now who are announced in.”

Trump earlier this month became the first sitting or former U.S. president to face criminal charges and pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. A 2024 candidate to retake the White House, he’s fundraised off the Manhattan prosecutor’s probe he has branded a “witch hunt.”

At the same time, Trump is also under scrutiny from two special counsel inquiries and another district attorney probe in Georgia…

April 21, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie delivered his opening arguments against Donald Trump on Thursday, sounding like the prosecutor he once was and the presidential candidate he might become again. (NHPR)

“Tonight is the beginning of the case against Donald Trump,” Christie said in New Hampshire, where he devoted his entire opening remarks at a town hall meeting to pounding on the former president he once supported.

“You’re not going to beat someone by closing your eyes, clicking your heels together three times and saying ‘There’s no place like home.” That’s not going to work,” he said. “In American politics you want to beat somebody? You have to go get them.”

Christie called out several Republican candidates and potential candidates – including former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley – for barely uttering Trump’s name and argued that Trump’s policy and character failures would only grow if he returns to office…

May 7, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) warned on Sunday that a potential rematch between former President Trump and President Biden in 2024 would be “bad for the Republican Party.” (The Hill)

“I’m very concerned that what we’re heading towards is a Trump-Biden rematch,” Christie said in an interview with radio talk show host John Catsimatidis on WABC 770 AM’s “Cats Roundtable”. “A Trump-Biden rematch is bad for the Republican Party.”

“Donald Trump has done nothing but lose since he won the election in 2016,” Christie continued. “We lost the House in 2018. The Senate and the White House in 2020. We under-performed in 2022 and lost more governorships and another Senate seat. Donald Trump cannot win.”

Christie, who is considering a 2024 bid of his own, has sought to position himself as the Republican candidate who can take on Trump…

…The only way to beat the front runner is to take the front runner on directly,” he added.

May 31, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to announce his 2024 Republican candidacy for president next Tuesday in New Hampshire, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Christie, 60, is a former close Trump ally who now calls the former president a “coward” and a “puppet of Putin.” He gives traditional Republicans a horse – but seems to have a narrow market in today’s GOP…

…Here’s what to expect from a Christie candidacy, per his team:

Being joyful and hitting a more hopeful note aimed at America’s “exhausted majority.”

Being authentic – a happy warrior who speaks his mind, takes risks and is happy to punch Donald Trump in the nose. Christie’s recent interviews and new Hampshire town halls aim to recapture the brio of his 2009 governor’s race.

Running a national race – “a non-traditional campaign that is highly focused on earned media, mixing it up in the news cycle and engaging Trump,” an adviser said. “Will not be geographic dependent, but nimble.”…

June 10, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a GOP presidential candidate for 2024, said the details of the federal indictment against former President Trump are “devastating.” (The Hill)

“The fact is that these facts are devastating,” Christie told CNN’s Jake Tapper in an interview Friday.

Christie noted that the indictment accuses Trump of directing which documents were to be packed in boxes upon leaving the White House at the end of his presidency, that they should be sent to Mar-a-Lago and where they should be placed while they were at Mar-a-Lago.

He said Trump is also accused of directing the documents to be taken with him to his golf club in Bedminister, N.J., when he went there during the summer and continuing to “stonewall” investigators who were trying to get the documents returned to government recordkeepers.

“The bigger issue for our country is, is this the type of conduct that we want from someone who wants to be president of the United States?” Christie said…

June 12, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) suggested that Americans shouldn’t be worried about a possible federal abortion ban if he was elected president, as Republican challengers have faced increasing pressure to adopt stricter abortion policies. (The Hill)

“What I stand for, Anderson, is what conservative have been arguing about for 50 years, which is that Roe [v. Wade] was wrong, there’s no federal constitutional right to an abortion and that the states should decide. And I absolutely believe that each state should make their decision on this,” Christie told host Anderson Cooper during a CNN town hall Monday.

“The federal government should not be involved unless and until there’s a consensus around the country from the 50 states making their own decisions about what it should be. And if at that time, there’s a consensus that has emerged, well then, that’s fine,” he added…

June 12, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) argues that former President Trump “will care less about the country this time than he did four years ago” as he seeks to make that case against reelecting Trump in 2024. (The Hill)

Christie argued agains the idea of reelecting Trump or President Biden during a CNN town hall in New York on Monday, saying that “if those two people are the nominees, they are going to be a combined 160 years old on Election Day.”

Biden is 80 years old and Trump is 76 years, meaning they are a combined 156 years old.

The former New Jersey governor said of Biden that he didn’t want to see Biden reelected because “I disagree with President Biden, vehemently, philosophically.” But he argued that Trump also shouldn’t be reelected because “he will care less about the country this time than he did four years ago. This is personal now.”…

…Christie announced his 2024 White House bid last week, though his campaign is considered a longshot in the crowded 2024 GOP primary. He’s pitched himself as chief Trump antagonist, arguing Republicans need to move on from the former president…

June 17, 2023: A super PAC supporting former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s (R) bid for the White House is airing a new advertisement attacking former President Trump for not committing to participating in the first Republican National Committee primary debate in August. (The Hill)

In the advertisement, entitled: “Trump’s Choice,” the Tell It Like It Is Super PAC tries to bait the leading 2024 GOP presidential candidate by asking him, “Are you a chicken or just a loser?”

“We know what’s in your head, Donald. Now that Chris Christie has qualified, should you show up for the debate? Because if you do, your opponents will bring up the impeachments, the indictments. Bring up how you lost to Joe Biden, lost the House, lost the Senate,” the ad says, before listing what the PAC depicts as policy failures during Trump’s administration.

“That’s what they’ll say if you show up, especially that guy Christie. But if you don’t go, you’ll be called a coward, a chicken. Reduced to throwing spitballs from the sidelines. So, Donald, you need to decide: Are you a chicken, or just a loser?” the ad concludes…

June 23, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) this week said he opposes state laws that ban gender-affirming care for transgender young people, distancing himself from other Republicans on what is already shaping up to be a key issue in the race for the White House in 2024. (The Hill)

Christie said in a June 18 interview with Jake Tapper said that states should abandon efforts to ban or restrict gender-affirming health care for transgender children and adolescents, replacing them with policies that prioritize parental involvement in transition-related care for minors.

“I don’t think that the government should ever be stepping into the place of parents in helping move their children through a process where those children are confused or concerned about their gender,” said Christie, who launched his 2024 presidential bid earlier this month. “The parents are the people who are the best positioned to make these judgements.”

“What I’d like to make sure each state does is require that parents be involved in these decisions,” he continued, later adding: “Folks who are under the age of 18 should have parental support and guidance and love as they make all of the key decisions of their life, and this should not be one that’s excluded by the government in any way.”…

July 23, 2023: GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie pushed back Sunday against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), a fellow 2024 White House hopeful, over his reaction to the new slavery curriculum in Florida, claiming the governor is not displaying leadership. (The Hill)

“I didn’t do it’ and ‘I’m not involved in it’ are not the words of leadership,” Christie said in an interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan on “Face The Nation.”

Christie, the former governor of New Jersey, was referring to DeSantis’s response to Vice President Harris, who recently called Florida’s now Black history education standards “propaganda.” The guidelines are based on Florida’s controversial law, which requires that race be taught in an “objective” manner that doesn’t seek to “indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view.”

The guidelines sparked heavy criticism, specifically over the requirement of teachers to instruct on “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”…

July 26, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov Chris Christie said Wednesday that it seems like Donald Trump’s final White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, might be cooperating with the federal probe into the former president. (NBC News)

Christie was reacting to a brief exchange captured on video Wednesday morning in Washing ton between Meadowland an NBC News reporter, who asked Meadows whether he has testified before a federal grand jury.

“I don’t talk about anything J6-related,” Meadows said, referring to special counsel Jack Smith’s probe into Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol and efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Asked whether he felt the investigation was appropriate, Meadows walked into a building.

“Watching that video,” Christie said in an interview on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” “That looks to me like somebody who is cooperating with the federal government.”…

August 6, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Sunday pushed back on the argument that D.C. residents, who overwhelmingly supported President Biden over former President Trump in the 2020 presidential race, couldn’t be fair jurors in a trial related to Trump’s efforts to stay in power after the 2020 election. (The Hill)

“My view is, yes, I believe jurors can be fair. I believe in the American people. And I believe in the fact that jurors will listen fairly and impartially,” Christie told CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview on “State of the Union.”

Christie, the former New Jersey governor, invoked his experience as a Republican U.S. attorney in a predominantly blue state in making the case that jurors can judge the case fairly.

The latest indictment against Trump, related to his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, is being tried in the District of Columbia. Some Trump allies have argued that the political leanings of the potential jurors in D.C. and an Obama-appointed judge assigned to the case make it less likely that Trump will get a fair trial…

August 15, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has surpassed Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in the critical early presidential primary state of New Hampshire, according to an Emerson College survey released Tuesday. (The Hill)

Christie leapfrogged DeSantis for second place in the Granite State, garnering 9 percent support. DeSantis’s support, on the other hand, fell from 8 percent to 17 percent in March. Christie’s 1-point lead over DeSantis falls within the poll’s plus-or-minus 3.4 percent margin of error…

…Christie’s campaign has maintained an intense focus on New Hampshire, while DeSantis’s team has prioritized Iowa. However, DeSantis has still made a number of trips to the Granite State.

Former President Trump still dominates the GOP primary field with 49 percent support, according to the same poll…

August 18, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie called former President Trump a “certified loser, verified coward,” following a Friday report that the 2024 GOP front-runner plans to skip next week’s first primary debate. (The Hill)

“Surprise, surprise… the guy who is out on bail from four jurisdictions and can’t defend his reprehensible conduct, is running scared and hiding from the debate stage,” the former New Jersey governor wrote Friday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Trump – certified loser, verified coward.”

…Christie, a former Trump supporter who has become one of his most vocal critics, called on him multiple times in recent weeks to participate in the debate. Earlier this month, Christie said Trump not debating shows a “lack of respect,” for Republican voters. That same day, he responded to Trump’s attacks on his weight and challenged the former president to attend the debate and “say it to my face.”…

September 8, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is still a Republican – after all, he’s running for that party’s presidential nomination, as he unsuccessfully did in 2016. But today, his views on Ukraine, on abortion and on other issues put him out of step with many in the party he hopes to lead. (NPR)

“Look, I think our country is in a much different place. And I think I’m a much different candidate than I was eight years ago,” Christie told NPR. “And I got into this race because I felt like no one was making that case. No one was willing to take the case directly to Donald Trump as to why he and through his conduct had disqualified himself for ever being president of the United States again. I want to make that case. I’ve been making that case. I think it’s important not only for my party, but for our country.”…

September 22, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is calling out former President Trump for “hiding” behind Truth Social while Christie and the other GOP 2024 presidential candidates prepare for their second debate next week. (The Hill)

“Stop hiding behind your … failed social media site,” Christie said on Thursday on CNN.

Trump, who has a commanding lead in Republican primary polls, passed on the first debate and has said he will skip the second, which is set to tale place next Wednesday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Christie, who has frequently battled with Trump, said the former president needs to “stop being a coward” and “show up” to the debates if he has something to say. The remarks came after Trump hit the former governor as a “grifter” on Truth Social.

“He doesn’t like when people stand up to him and call him out on the nonsense that he’s involved in,” Christie told CNN Wolf Blitzer. “If he had any guts, he’d get on the debate stage.”

Christie pointed to recent polling out of New Hampshire that puts him ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the GOP race. “He has stopped attacking Ron DeSantis and he started attacking me,” he said…

November 4, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie was booed while walking on sage at the Florida Republican Party’s Freedom Summit event on Saturday. (The Hill)

“Now look, every one of those boos, everyone one of those cat calls, everyone one of those yells will not … solve one problem we face in this country,” Christie said. “Your anger against the truth is reprehensible.”…

…Christie told the displeased crowd that they could reject his arguments, he just needed to be able to say them first…

The problem is … you fear the truth,” he told the crowd. “You want to shout down any voice that says anything different than what you want to hear. And you can continue to do it. And believe me… it doesn’t bother me one bit”…

November 9, 2023: As President Joe Biden seeks to reassure Muslim American voters amid the Israel-Hamas war, the White House knocked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for downplaying what he called “so-called Islamophobia” at the GOP presidential debate Wednesday night. (NBC News)

“In what is a heartbreaking crisis, violence and hateful rhetoric against Muslims and Arab Americans and Sikhs is spiking across our country,” White House spokesperson Andrew Bates said Thursday in a statement to NBC News. “President Biden believes we have an urgent duty to come together as Americans and stand against every form of hate. It is not leadership to denigrate the very real pain that Islamophobia is causing: it is cynical and cruel. Nor is it leadership to spread the dangerous pretense that fighting against one kind of hate somehow subtracts from fighting another; that is only a sign of a desperate need for self-reflection.”

In the debate, DeSantis and some of the other Republican candidates said the government should focus on combatting antisemitism, not Islamophobia.

“What is Biden doing? Not only is he not helping the Jewish students who are being persecuted, he is launching an initiative to combat so-called Islamophobia. No, it’s the antisemitism that’s spiraling out of control. That is what we have to confront,” DeSantis said.

The White House on Thursday noted that Biden in May rolled out what was billed as the first-ever U.S. national strategy to fight antisemitism, months before he launched a similar effort to combat Islamophobia. Late last month, the White House announced an effort to counter antisemitism on college campuses….

…Muslims Americans voted overwhelmingly for Biden in 2020. But community leaders in swing states hav said they will defect from the president over his full-throated support of Israel.

November 11, 2023: Chris Christie’s campaign said Monday that the former New Jersey governor had hit the donor requirement for the GOP’s fourth presidential debate next month, as candidates work to meet the Republican National Committee (RNC) thresholds to get on the Tuscaloosa Ala., stage. (The Hill)

“Coming off the heels of Christie’s strong performance at the third debate last week, we’ve seen the best fundraising week of the campaign since he announced, bringing in thousands of new donors in just the five days since. The campaign now has well over 80,000 donors and meets all the criteria needed for the next debate,” a spokesperson for the campaign said in a memo.

The RNC required candidates to have 70,000 unique donors to get on the Miami debate stage last week and raised it to 80,000 for the next event.

The party also raised polling criteria to require candidates to reach at least 6 percent in two national polls – or 6 percent in one national poll and 6 percent in one early-state poll “from two separate ‘carve out’ states (Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina) recognized by the RNC.” The polls must also meet a few other benchmarks, including some related to how many voters are surveyed and who conducts the poll…

…”Of the eight candidates at the first debate, two have been knocked off the stage, and two others have dropped out. We will bedgown to four come December,” the campaign said. “Christie has already outlasted a former Vice President, a current US Senator, a current self-funding governor, and another former governor who were all on that stage.

Just five candidates made the third debate in Miami…

November 16, 2023: GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie warned that former President Trump’s rhetoric, including his recent ‘vermin’ comment, could incite others. (The Hill)

“Well, I think that what he’s done with his use of language is to give permission to a lot of people who then believe they can take it even further.” Christie told CNN anchor Jake Tapper on “The Lead” on Wednesday. “And they can actualize the things that he said, weaponize the things that he’s saying. And most people won’t use that type of language, because they know there’s a risk of that.”

“He doesn’t care. He just doesn’t care, Jake. I mean, his view is if it’s good for him at that moment, he’ll do it,” the former New Jersey governor added.

Christie’s comments came after the former president pledged in remarks in New Hampshire over the weekend that if reelected, he would “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists, and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country,” warning of the “threat from within.”…

November 25, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie on Sunday said former President Trump’s “intolerant” language contributed to widespread intolerance, including the recent rise of antisemitism in the United States. (The Hill)

“When you show intolerance towards everyone, which is what he does, you give permission as a leader for others to have their intolerance come out,” Christie said in an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, referring to Trump.

“So intolerance towards anyone encourages intolerance towards everyone. And that’s exactly what’s going on here,” he said…

November 26, 2023: 2024 GOP Presidential primary candidate Chris Christie slammed calls for voters to consolidate their support behind either his campaign or fellow candidate Nikki Haley’s. (The Hill)

“The idea of people just doing math and adding up numbers, that’s not the way voters vote,” Christie said in an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union”. “And, so, I would say to everybody out there: Let’s let the campaign move forward.”…

Asked whether he expects to be in the race through the New Hampshire primary, Christie says he expects to remain in the primary through the convention…

…Christie and Haley have emerged as two candidates with overlapping platforms – both are staunch supporters of Ukraine and Israel, and both are seen as more serious candidates with governing experience. While Christie has been more critical of former President Trump – the distant GOP front-runner in the race – Haley’s platform is more similar to his than to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s platform, which embraces a more expansionist view of executive power…

November 26, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he plans to stay in the Republican primary race through next summer’s nominating convention, dismissing a recent CNN poll that shows him trailing former President Donald Trump and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in New Hampshire – a state he’s invested heavily in winning. (CNN)

In an interview Sunday with CNN’s Dana Bash, Christie also brushed off the possibility of working with Haley or dropping out to consolidate support behind a candidate who can mount a serious challenge to Trump, the clear frontrunner in the race.

“I think Gov. Haley and I both have the same goal, and that is to be president of the United States,” Christie said on “State of the Union.” “I think we’re showing great momentum in New Hampshire. We’ve been gaining over the last couple of weeks. I think we’re going to continue to gain in that, in that fight. And I think we’re going to do very, very well in New Hampshire on January 23.”…

November 28, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday he would not sign a six-week federal abortion ban as president because he does not believe such legislation aligns with the views of the American public. (CNN)

“One thing I know for sure is there is no consensus around a six-week abortion ban nationally,” the GOP presidential candidate said Tuesday on “CNN This Morning,” pointing to recent victories at the ballot box for supporters of abortion rights since the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling was overturned last year.

Christie has said he personally opposes abortion and that he would only sign a federal bill restricting the procedure if it represented a national consensus, something he acknowledges would be difficult in a divided Congress…

By weighing in specifically on a six-week ban, Christie sought to draw a contrast with some of his Republican rivals on an issue that the party has struggled with following the elimination of federal abortion protections with the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.

Christie told CNN he thinks his primary rival Nikki Haley’s recent comments saying she would sign a six-week abortion ban in her home state of South Carolina if she were still governor could make her potential general election prospects “much more difficult.”

“You could see when [Gov. Ron] DeSantis signed that bill in Florida, it certainly affected his popularity with a broader electorate,” Christie said, referring to a measure the Florida governor signed earlier this year to ban most abortions in the state after six weeks. (That law is currently on hold as the state Supreme Court decides a challenge to an earlier 15-week ban on the procedure.)…

December 1, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie late Thursday urged fellow GOP candidate Nikki Haley to attack former President Trump by name. (The Hill)

“I just said his name out loud and lighting did not strike me. I did not fall dead of a heart attack. I have not been poisoned by a member of his staff,” Christie said at a town hall event in New Hampshire. “But you would think when you look at the rest of the folks in this race that they fear that’s what would happen if they said his name.”

Christie, a former New Jersey governor who has become an outspoken critic of Trump, then turned his attention to Haley, a former United Nation’s ambassador, who rolled out her first ad of the GOP primary cycle earlier that day.

Haley has made gains in polling and among donors while not explicitly targeting Trump. Her advertisement said a new generation of conservative leadership is needed and “we have to leave the chaos and drama of the past.”

Christie questioned what she meant by leaving the “chaos and drama” in the past.

“Why not say it?” he asked, pointing to Haley and the other candidates refusal to call out the former president.

“He’s not Voldemort from the Harry Potter books. He’s not he who shall not be named,” Christie said…

December 1, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) said he is “confident” he will qualify for the fourth GOP primary debate next week. (The Hill)

“I’m confident that I’ll be on the stage for the debate,” he said in a CNN interview Friday. “Remember these same reports were made before the last debate about [Sen.] Tim Scott [R-S.C.], that he did not appear to qualify…

…Presidential hopefuls will need to be polling at 6 percent or higher in two national polls, or at 6 percent in one early state poll from two separate “carve out” states – listed a Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina – to get behind a podium, according to a release from the Republican National Committee. But which polls count for the tallies is unknown…

…A staunch Trump Critic, Christie said Thursday that nominating Trump could be a “death sentence” for Republicans. He’s encouraged fellow GOP candidates to go after Trump more on the campaign trail, particularly Nikki Haley.

“The death sentence is let Trump be our nominee. If Trump is our nominee, we will not only lose the presidency again, but we will lose both houses of Congress and we will lose races up and down the ticket,” Christie said in a NewsNation Interview Thursday…

December 6, 2023: Chris Christie pressed Ron DeSantis over former President Trump’s fitness to hold the office of the presidency at Wednesday night’s fourth GOP debate, accusing DeSantis of being afraid to give a clear answer. (The Hill)

DeSantis was asked about whether Trump is “mentally fit” to be president at the event, hosted by The Hill’s sister news organization NewsNation. The Florida governor responded that “Father Time is undefeated” and mentioned Trumps advanced age as a concern.

“The idea that we’re going to put someone up that’s almost 80 and there’s going to be no effects from that, we know that’s not true,” he said. “And so we have an opportunity to do a next generation of leaders.”

DeSantis did not directly say whether Trump is fit but said he believes the country needs someone younger in office. He then shifted to criticize some policies that Trump ran on in 2016 but did not “deliver.”…

December 6, 2023: Chris Christie got into a fiery exchange with Vivek Ramaswamy during Wednesday’s night’s fourth GOP debate, calling out the entrepreneur and fellow White House contender for repeatedly interrupting and blasting him for his attacks against fellow candidate Nikki Haley. (The Hill)

“This is the fourth debate what you would devoted in the first 30 minutes as the most obnoxious blowhard in American. So shut up for a little while,” Christie said during the event, hosted by The Hill’s sister news organization NewsNation.

The former New Jersey governor had offered a summary of Ramaswamy’s stance on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, which Ramaswamy denied was correct.

“It’s exactly what you said. You do this at every debate,” Christie said.

When Ramaswamy interjected, Christie said, “You go out on the stump and you say something, all of us see it on video, we confront you out on the debate stage. You say you didn’t say it, and then you back away.”…

December 7, 2023: GOP presidential Chris Christie said he “had enough” of Vivek Ramaswamy’s “garbage” on the debate stage, where he repeatedly launched attacks at the conservative entrepreneur. (The Hill)

Asked by CNN’s Dana Bash in an interview post-debate about why he defended former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley from Ramaswamy’s insults – including questioning her “basic intelligence” – the former New Jersey governor denounced the attacks as “personal.”

“I’m a truth-teller, Dana. And I – look, Nikki and I disagree. I don’t think Nikki should be president of the United States. But I’ll tell you this: She’s a smart woman,” he said. “And she’s an accomplished woman, and she’s worked incredibly hard in both South Carolina and in the U.N.”

“And I think Vivek does have a woman problem,” he continued. “I do think he insults women’s basic intelligence. He’s done it over and over and over again. And I guess tonight, I just had had enough. I had enough to listen to his garbage.”

Christie was on the offensive throughout the fourth debate, getting into numerous fiery clashes with Ramaswamy. The most intense moment came when he lambasted the entrepreneur for repeatedly interrupting the other candidates…

December 9, 2023: Chris Christie has a message for those calling him to exit the Republican presidential primary to help consolidate the field against front-runner Donald Trump: “I’m not going anywhere.” (CNN)

“If they were up here in New Hampshire and saw the crowds we were getting, the reaction we were getting, they wouldn’t honestly be able to say any of that,” the former New Jersey governor told CNN in an interview Friday.

Christie, who is counting on a strong performance in the first-in-the-nation primary on January 23 to buoy his campaign, has positioned himself as a “truth teller” in the race, drawing a contrast with Trump and often criticizing his onetime ally’s conduct.

But he has struggled to register in the national polls and, a little over a month before voting begins in the GOP primary several top party financiers looking to boost a Trump alternative are throwing their support behind former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

Still, Christie remains undaunted.

“I haven’t had one donor, not one of my significant donors or any donor at all, call me and say the we should get out of this race. I haven’t had one supporter call me and tell me to get out of this race,” he said…

December 12, 2023: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s strong debate performance in Tuscaloosa, Ala., has given him a renewed reason to stay in the GOP presidential primary, even as his prospects for the nomination remain slim. (The Hill)

Christie fiercely criticized former President Trump at the Wednesday debate hosted by NewsNation. He landed attacks on three rivals who appeared on stage and got in the most debate speaking time he has had so far, by CNN’s count.

But Republicans acknowledge the longer Christie stays in the race, the more he could divide the field and help the former president seal the GOP nomination…

…Christie has repeatedly attacked Trump on the campaign trail and throughout the debates, accusing him in the second one of not attending because he was “afraid” to defend his record. He extended that line of attack to on-stage rivals Wednesday, saying they were afraid to criticize Trump.

While he once polled as high as second place in New Hampshire, Christie ranked third at best in the state recently and has stayed near the bottom of the pack in other states nationwide.

Still, Christie appears likely to stay in the race into next year…

December 15, 2023: Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie is selling himself as the “only one” who can defeat former President Trump in the former New Jersey governor’s first campaign ad. (The Hill)

The ad, released Friday, calls out Christie’s fellow GOP presidential candidates for going after each other instead of focusing their criticism on the race’s clear front-runner.

It includes clops of attack ads from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley and Gov. Ron DeSantis (Fla.) targeting each other, while noting that they both significantly trail Trump in the polls.

“There’s only one candidate trying to stop Trump,” the ad’s narrator said. “Chris Christie is the only one who can beat Trump, because he’s the only one trying to beat Trump.”

Christie has sold himself as the choice anti-Trump candidate, consistently criticizing the former president and vowing to defeat him. He underlined that point in the fourth GOP debate last week, throwing digs at Trump but also the other candidates, who said he didn’t care about defeating the former president.

The former governor has focused nearly all of his campaign resources in New Hampshire, with the hope that a strong performance there would lead to support elsewhere.

He is polling third in the Granite State with about 13 percent support, according to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ polling averages. Trump leads the New Hampshire field with about 46 percent support, according to the polling average while Haley places second with about 20 percent support…

January 10, 2024: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) is ending his 2024 bid for the White House just days before the Iowa caucus, he announced Wednesday, (The Hill)

“It’s clear to me tonight that there isn’t a path for me to win the nomination,” Christie told the audience at a town hall in Windham, N.H.

The surprise move comes after Christie struggled to see gains in polling amid what many view as a scramble for second place between former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). Former President Trump, meanwhile, has continued to dominate the GOP primary field.

The former New Jersey governor’s decision will be mainly viewed as a boon for Haley, who has seen particular momentum in New Hampshire, where Christie was also pitting a lot of his campaign’s energy.

Christie had launched his campaign in June, going after Trump and pitching himself as an alternative to the former president…

…He has bashed Trump over his ongoing legal battles and warned voters that Trump is “not goal is to outlast” his fellow Republican candidates, trying to run a “spartan” campaign that brought in cash and kept its burn rate low.

In the third fundraising quarter, Christie brought in nearly $3.8 million, trailing fellow GOP candidates, including Haley and DeSantis, and well less than Trump…

…Christie had said in September that he would leave the 2024 race if he didn’t do well in the New Hampshire primary. Back in 2016, he ended his first White House bid just after finishing a disappointing sixth place in the Granite State’s contest.

January 10, 2024: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was heard on a hot mic predicting that Nikki Haley is “gonna get smoked” in the race against Donald Trump, shortly before Christie bowed out of the contest in a move widely seen as boosting Haley’s campaign. (The Hill)

The hot mic comment from Christie was quickly touted by Trump, the clear GOP frontrunner, as well as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Each have battled to blunt Haley’s momentum in the race before the Iowa caucuses on Monday and the New Hampshire primary later this month.

“I mean, look, she spent like $68 million so far, just on TV — spent $68 million so far — $59 million by DeSantis, and we spent $12 [million]. I mean, who’s punching above their weigh and who’s getting a return on their investment, you know? Christie was heard saying in the audio. “And she’s gonna get smoked. And you and I both know it. She’s not up to this.”

It was unclear who Christie was speaking with, but the remarks were heard on a live stream posted by the former New Jersey governor’s campaign shortly before he announced on stage in New Hampshire that he was suspending his presidential bid…

January 10, 2024: Chris Christie urged GOP primary voters to not support former President Donald Trump after the former New Jersey governor dropped out of the race Wednesday. (The Hill)…

…”Donald Trump wants you to be angry every day, because he’s angry,” Christie said during his New Hampshire event. “He wants you to be so angry that you’ll relate to that anger and then voter for hm. Please understand this: I have known him well for 22 years, more than anybody else in this race has known him.”

He continued: “And I can promise you this – if you put him back behind the desk in the Oval Office and the choice comes and a decision is needed to be made as to whether he puts himself first of he puts you first. How much more evidence do you need? He will pick himself.”…

January 16, 2024: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie ended his bid in January. Once a Trump defender, he’s become one of the former president’s most outspoken critics. Christie has decried Trump’s reluctance to debate and his unwillingness to accept the results of the 2020 election, as well as called the former president a “coward” and “puppet of Putin.” He’s committed not to support Trump even if the former president wins the Republican nomination. (Vox)…

It’s a remarkable 180-degree turn for someone who was previously a close ally of Trump, briefly headed his White House transition team, and helped him prepare for debates in 2020. But his turn didn’t win him much support among the many Republican voters who have rallied behind Trump, even amid his many legal troubles and four indictments.

Christie’s attacks on Trump did seem to spare other GOP candidates from having to go on offense against the former president, who has been known to eviscerate his opponent with mudslinging and name-calling. Christie has been on the receiving end of Trump’s attacks before, when they weakened his bid in the 2016 presidential primary. The former governor finished sixth before ultimately endorsing Trump for the nomination.