It's Chris Christie's last day in office — here's how he became the least popular governor in New Jersey history by Eliza Relman on Jan 16, 2018, 11:28 AM Advertisement
 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, once a star in the Republican Party with a nearly 80% approval rating, will leave office on Tuesday as the least popular governor in his state's history. Christie began his seven-year tenure in office as a big-tent Republican, viewed by many across the aisle as a tough straight-talker. Following the destruction of Hurricane Sandy in 2012, his approval rating surged into the high 70s and he won reelection by a landslide in 2013. Once unafraid to diverge from party orthodoxy, Christie has in recent years tacked right, running for president on a conservative platform and endorsing a president widely despised among New Jerseyans. After several scandals, including the criminal convictions of two of his top aides, and a failed 2016 presidential bid, Christie has just a 14% approval rating and is widely disliked in his own state and party. Here is the series of events that led to Christie's decline: SEE ALSO: Chris Christie's fall from grace: How a presidential frontrunner became the country's least popular governor Bridgegate  In 2013, two lanes on the New York-New Jersey George Washington Bridge were ordered closed for several days, paralyzing the town of Fort Lee. A subsequent investigation found that Christie's office ordered the closures to "get back" at a Democratic mayor who did not support Christie's reelection. Two of Christie's senior officials were sentenced to prison for their role in the ordeal. Christie was not criminally charged in the scandal and rebuffed calls to resign. But his aides and federal prosecutors said that the governor was aware that his top officials were involved in the ordeal as a way to punish the mayor at the time that it was happening. The scandal, known as "Bridgegate," shattered Christie's popularity in the state.
A failed bid for president  Christie surprised both parties and his own constituents when he announced his bid for the Republican presidential nomination in June 2015. Over the course of his eight-month campaign, the governor abandoned his identity as a moderate, moving right on several key issues, including immigration. Christie dropped out of the race after winning just 7% of Republican primary voters in New Hampshire in mid-February 2016.
Christie endorses Trump  In February 2016, Christie endorsed then-presidential candidate Donald Trump just two weeks after Christie bowed out of the race. "I can guarantee you that the one person that Hillary and Bill Clinton do not want to see on that stage come next September is Donald Trump," Christie said at a press conference. "They know how to run the standard political playbook against junior senators and run them around the block — they do not know the playbook with Donald Trump because he is rewriting the playbook." Christie's endorsement, which came several months before Trump clinched the party's nomination, shocked the political world — and many New Jerseyans — provoking yet another backlash against him. "We're fed up with his opportunism, we're fed up with his hypocrisy," wrote six New Jersey newspapers in a joint editorial asking for Christie to resign or be pushed out. "We're disgusted with his endorsement of Donald Trump after he spent months on the campaign trail trashing him, calling him unqualified by temperament and experience to be president." In the week following the endorsement, Christie's approval rating dropped from 33% to 27%. And many fellow Republicans voiced shock and dismay. "None of us understand why he did this," said South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who has since been appointed by Trump to be the US's ambassador to the UN.
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