Republicans Christie, Fiorina pull out of White House race

After his disappointing fifth-place finish in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary, Rubio faces intense competition to win over S.C. Republican voters looking for an option to GOP front-runners Donald Trump of NY and U.S. Sen.

The odds of Mr Trump winning the White House, once seen as an extremely long shot, improved significantly after his victory in New Hampshire, online betting site Ladbrokes said. A rocky debate performance by Florida Sen.

Bernie Sanders took a decisive victory over Clinton in New Hampshire and is now trading at 4/1 having previously hit a low of 3/1.

Chris Christie makes a midday stop at T-Bones Great American Eatery in Derry, N.H., as he canvasses for votes on Tuesday.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

“Well, unfortunately, it created a distraction that didn’t allow us at the end of the campaign there to close with our message because everybody wanted to talk about the fact that I said the same thing a couple times”, Rubio said.

His third-place Iowa finish seemed to validate that decision.

The enthusiasm behind Trump, a real estate mogul who has never held political office, and Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, underscore the public’s anger with the current political system.

After finishing behind Cruz in Iowa, Trump has spent the past week both protesting that result and stepping up more traditional campaign activities.

Neither Christie’s nor Cruz’s campaigns responded to requests for comment. He gleefully repeated an audience member’s description of Cruz as a “pussy” at a Monday campaign event because the senator from Texas said he was uncomfortable with torturing the country’s military enemies. “I don’t think we have the luxury any longer to basically say look, ‘I don’t want to argue with Republicans”.

After Rubio finished far ahead of mainstream rivals Bush, Chris Christie and Kasich in Iowa, he appeared to be best positioned to place second in New Hampshire, perhaps knocking Christie or Kasich out of the race and emerging as the party’s best hope to derail Trump’s insurgent bid.

In response to Christie’s repeated accusation, Rubio delivered the following line three times in the debate: that President Obama is not unprepared and that he knows exactly what he is doing.

The Republican establishment had hoped for a while now that establishment candidates like Bush, Kasich and Christie would eventually drop out of the race and rally around Rubio like some sort of Republican Voltron who would be powerful enough to destroy Trump before he ruins the party.

Christie announced Tuesday night he would go back to New Jersey and “take a deep breath”, instead of heading to SC, the next primary state.

During his stump speech, Rubio didn’t mention Cruz by name, referring only to another senator who’s running for president. Democrats who once feared a premature coronation of Clinton can breathe easy (even if she can’t).

Clinton has sought to play down expectations in New Hampshire, noting that Sanders is from neighboring Vermont.

Marco Rubio limped out of New Hampshire on Wednesday, optimistic the terrain will be more favorable in SC, scene of the next GOP presidential primary on Feb.20.