Voting in the Republican primaries is about to begin in January. But that’s the last thing on the mind of these GOP politicians.
And these Republican presidential candidates are smacked with a damaging report that could end their campaigns.
The Republican field for the party’s nomination for president is thinning out fast.
Senator Tim Scott (R-SC), former Vice President Mike Pence, and North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum have all recently dropped out of the race.
That now leaves former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson as the two candidates who are polling at the bottom in Republican national primary polls.
Christie sits at 2.8% in the polls while Hutchinson can’t even get over the 1% threshold as he’s polling at 0.8% according to FiveThirtyEight polling.
Not only are those two candidates considered major longshots to win the party’s nomination, they also won’t be appearing on the Republican primary ballot in Maine.
According to the state’s director of elections, Heidi Peckham, Christie and Hutchinson didn’t collect enough signatures (2,000) to appear on the ballot.
Christie only achieved 844 signatures, which he believes is an incorrect number that Maine recorded.
“The campaign collected and submitted over 6,000 signatures,” a spokesperson for the Christie campaign said to CBS News.
“This is simply a procedural issue with the way they reviewed signatures and is under appeal.”
To make matters worse for both Christie and Hutchinson, Pastor Ryan Binkley, a longshot candidate who doesn’t appear in most polls, was able to make the ballot in Maine by achieving the 2,000 signature requirement.
Both Christie and Hutchinson are considered to be heavily anti-Donald Trump.
And in a situation where they are in need of more support, their stance on the former president will undoubtedly sink them further down in the polls.
That can only lead to voters wondering when they’ll call it quits and bow out of the race.
The Maine presidential primary will be held on March 5 of next year.
That gives Hutchinson and Christie time to exceed expectations in states like South Carolina, Iowa, and New Hampshire, whose voting occurs before Maine’s.
Former Governor Christie believes that he has the ability to sneak out a win in New Hampshire.
But if he can’t even make the ballot in Maine, there’s reason to doubt his prediction.
Stay tuned to The Federalist Wire.
