New Hampshire voters widely want Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie to bow out of the race, an early test of how the former New Jersey governor would fare in the crucial battleground state.

Among likely state GOP primary voters who tuned in to the second Republican debate last week, 41% believe Christie should drop out of the race based among the seven participants that debated in California, according to a USA Today/Boston Globe/Suffolk University survey.

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Former Vice President Mike Pence was a far-off second choice for New Hampshire Republicans, with only 17% encouraging him to step aside. Gov. Doug Burgum (R-ND) trailed closely behind Pence with 16%, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy polled at 11%.

Christie's campaign appears to be targeting New Hampshire as a winnable state in the 2024 presidential race, as the pro-Christie super PAC Tell It Like It Is urged registered Democratic voters to switch parties and vote for the New Jersey governor ahead of the state’s Oct. 6 deadline to change political parties.

“This can’t happen again,” the mailer to blue party members reads. “You can make sure it doesn’t. Stop Trump by switching parties & voting in the Republican primary.”

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Christie has campaigned early and often in the Granite State, announcing his presidential bid at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics in Manchester. But while Republicans center their campaigns in the swing state, New Hampshire struggles to sort their presidential primary status.

New Hampshire and the Democratic National Committee have been debating over the state's refusal to give up its traditional role as a leadoff state in the presidential primary. The Republican National Committee and the state are also battling, with RNC officials threatening to pull one of the state’s debates if it moves up its primary date before the Iowa caucuses. New Hampshire Republican Secretary of State David Scanlan said they still plan to adhere to the first-in-the-nation rule.