TRENTON -- Gov. Chris Christie is still waiting to exhale, but Republican experts are saying the New Jersey governor is all but certain to end his presidential campaign in New Jersey sometime Wednesday.

"We're going to go home to New Jersey tomorrow and take a deep breath," Christie told supporters in Nashua, N.H., late Tuesday evening after the New Hampshire presidential primary.

The goal, Christie said, is to "see what the final results are tonight -- 'cause that matters -- whether we're sixth or fifth."

A sixth-place finish would mean Christie wouldn't qualify for the ninth GOP debate, scheduled for Saturday in South Carolina under criteria for admission CBS released late Tuesday. He needed to be in the top five in New Hampshire.

As of early Wednesday with 89.3 percent of New Hampshire precincts reporting, Christie was ranked in sixth place with just 7.5 percent of the vote. He was well behind declared winner Donald Trump's 35.1 percent, as well as all of his chief rivals, including Ohio Gov. John Kasich (15.9 percent), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (11.1 percent) and U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (10.6 percent).

Polls showed that Christie had clearly damaged Rubio in last week's Republican debate by calling out his repeated reliance on rote answers. But GOP operatives said the damage the governor inflicted on Rubio simply didn't accrue to Christie's benefit.

"Chris Christie did the dirty work and crushed Rubio -- and got nothing for it," said Rick Davis, the campaign manager of U.S. Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.

Christie shelved plans to head directly to South Carolina to attend already-scheduled campaign events on Wednesday and Thursday until he could learn whether he was out of the debate for certain.

GOP operatives like Davis were not convinced of the need to wait at all.

"I don't believe he has any chance for the top five," Davis said. "He will not be invited to (the CBS sponsored GOP debate in) Greenville."

Krista Jenkins, a professor at Farleigh Dickinson University and the director of its PublicMind poll, agreed.

"His sixth place finish, despite considerable time and energy spent courting voters in the Live Free or Die state, leaves him off the debate stage and one step closer to a sooner-than-hoped end to his presidential ambitions," she said.

And so as Trump, Kasich, Rubio, Bush, and U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas can all advance to South Carolina, "the only one who definitely needs to pack it in is Christie," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

"If he harbors ambitions for 2020 or 2024 -- and he definitely does -- he needs to avoid further embarrassment," Murray said.

The pollsters, operatives and professors all noted that that finishing sixth in New Hampshire was especially damaging, given Christie visited the state more than any other candidate in the Republican field.

"I think we can safely call New Hampshire an embarrassment for Gov. Christie," said Brigid Harrison, a professor of political science and law at Montclair State University.

"He devoted enormous time, money, and energy to the state and walked away with a mere 8 percent of the vote," she added.

As chairman of the Republican Governors Association, Christie had made five trips to fund-raise and campaign for failed GOP gubernatorial candidate Walt Havenstein in 2014.

"Christie's poor showing (in New Hampshire) can be traced back to Nov. 4, 2014," Murray said. "He had a lots of big wins as RGA chair in that election, but probably lost the only one that mattered.

"If Walt Havenstein had won the New Hampshire governor race that night, Christie probably could have counted on the entire state operation party to get behind him."

Experts say it's not unimaginable that Christie soldiers on, but that it's unlikely, given how little campaign funding remained before the lackluster results and how much his campaign has already endured.

Claude Brodesser-Akner may be reached at cbrodesser@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @ClaudeBrodesser. Find NJ.com Politics on Facebook.