--- title: Chris Christie 'Can't Imagine' Skipping South Carolina description: But he'll need to do well in New Hampshire first. canonical: https://time.com/4213855/chris-christie-south-carolina-primary/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-09T16:14:06.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:26.280Z article:section: Politics og:title: Christie 'Can't Imagine' Skipping South Carolina og:description: But he'll need to do well in New Hampshire to continue. og:url: https://time.com/4213855/chris-christie-south-carolina-primary/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2599159a99592894/69887cc52dce0109239e7ba7/chris-christie1.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) greets supporters outside the polling place at Webster School February 9, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Christie 'Can't Imagine' Skipping South Carolina twitter:description: But he'll need to do well in New Hampshire to continue. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2599159a99592894/69887cc52dce0109239e7ba7/chris-christie1.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Christie 'Can't Imagine' Scenario Where He Skips South Carolina > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke J Miller / Bedford, N.H.](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Bedford, N.H. Feb 9, 2016 4:14 PM UTC  Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) greets supporters outside the polling place at Webster School February 9, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) greets supporters outside the polling place at Webster School February 9, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Zeke J Miller / Bedford, N.H.](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke J Miller / Bedford, N.H. Feb 9, 2016 4:14 PM UTC New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Tuesday he was confident in his campaigns’s position as New Hampshire voters make their pick for the Republican nominee, saying he couldn’t envision a scenario where he does not move on to South Carolina. “We intend to do well tonight,” Christie told reporters outside his campaign headquarters in Bedford, N.H. “I intend to be on the plane to South Carolina tomorrow and start working down there.” [_Who Said It: Trump or Another 2016 Republican?_](http://time.com/4212567/donald-trump-insults-attacks/) “I can’t imagine a scenario tonight under which I wouldn’t be on the place to South Carolina tomorrow morning,” he added. “But we’ll see. You know, there’s lots of things that have happened in this campaign that nobody could imagine. I feel pretty good about where we are and how we’re doing.” Christie, who was polling in the single digits before his high-profile exchange with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in Saturday’s debate has seen a poll bump in internal surveys, but it remains to be seen whether it was enough to match, let alone beat, the other two governors in the race, Jeb Bush and John Kasich. Christie has made beating the other two executives his goal for the state, and should he fall short supporters predict it will be difficult for his shoe-string campaign to continue. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4213855/chris-christie-south-carolina-primary/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4213855/chris-christie-south-carolina-primary/"},"headline":"Christie 'Can't Imagine' Scenario Where He Skips South Carolina","datePublished":"2016-02-09T16:14:06.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:26.280Z","description":"But he'll need to do well in New Hampshire first","url":"https://time.com/4213855/chris-christie-south-carolina-primary/","keywords":["Chris Christie","2016 Election","new hampshire","South Carolina"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2599159a99592894/69887cc52dce0109239e7ba7/chris-christie1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke J Miller / Bedford, N.H."}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2599159a99592894/69887cc52dce0109239e7ba7/chris-christie1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) greets supporters outside the polling place at Webster School February 9, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire.","caption":"Republican presidential candidate New Jersey Governor Chris Christie (R) greets supporters outside the polling place at Webster School February 9, 2016 in Manchester, New Hampshire.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/chris-christie/","name":"Chris Christie"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4213855/chris-christie-south-carolina-primary/","name":"Christie 'Can't Imagine' Scenario Where He Skips South Carolina"}}]}] ```