New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is officially not running for president, despite repeated wooing from Republican elites and major donors who remain unhappy with the GOP presidential field and have refused for months to take no for an answer.

Christie’s emphatic no was reported by Fox News, as well as the Newark Star-Ledger, which quoted his brother Todd saying a run was not in consideration.

“I’m sure that he’s not going to run,” Todd Christie told the paper. “If he’s lying to me, I’ll be as stunned as I’ve ever been in my life.”

The extent to which Christie was ever actually considering running for president — as opposed to mouthing lines such as “I’ll keep you posted” to eager donors — remains an open question.

Nonetheless, the door seemed to close quite clearly with the report on Fox News, whose head honcho, Roger Ailes, has a strong relationship with Christie.

The network’s owner, Rupert Murdoch, had also been among those urging Christie to get in, multiple sources said.

The Christie frenzy reached new heights over the last week, as it became clear that Rick Perry is failing to clear a basic bar with conservatives and some bundlers. Christie, after a small meeting with major donors last week, had appeared to indicate he would reconsider their pleas, two Republican sources told POLITICO.

But despite the chatter, several Republicans close to Christie told POLITICO that he had never moved off his “no,” which he made upon threat of suicide.

And the intense interest was only fueled by a previously scheduled fundraising trip Christie is currently on raising money for the NJ GOP and for other candidates nationally. He’ll deliver a speech tonight at the Reagan Presidential Library as part of the cross-country swing.

(Source: Politico)