With Christie and Fiorina out, where will their supporters go?

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Where does Christie, Fiorina support go?

Strategy Room: Ellen Ratner and Sarah Chamberlain discuss which candidate benefits most from Christie and Fiorina dropping out of GOP race

Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie -- two Republican candidates who at one point enjoyed loyal followings -- are now out of the 2016 race.

The question is, where will their supporters go?

At first blush, the candidates would seem to hail from a pro-business, establishment-friendly wing of the party -- suggesting their supporters would gravitate in that direction as they look for another candidate to back.

But analysts have differing views.

At this point, with neither drop-out endorsing another candidate, one can only take clues from their political philosophies and posture, Republican strategist Brent Littlefield said.

"I don't think that they will likely go to the Donald Trump camp or the Ted Cruz camp," he said.

His best guess is supporters of Christie and Fiorina will likely drift to one of the GOP governors -- Ohio’s John Kasich, or former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. On one hand, Christie has made it clear he thinks a governor would make the best decision-maker, he said. In Fiorina’s case, he added, much of her support came from Republican establishment-aligned women, so it would be likely they would go for a similar candidate.

But there are nuances to each.

Fiorina, a pro-business conservative, also campaigned hard on her pro-life beliefs and perceived ability to bring fiscal responsibility to the federal government.

Christie was seen as a moderate in the race. But that doesn’t mean some of Christie’s support didn’t come from his sometimes brash and tough-talking rhetoric on the campaign trail.

Some wonder whether the supporters who went for Christie could also go for a guy like Trump.

“Based on personality, Chris Christie is a natural fit for Donald Trump,” said Mark Meckler, president of the conservative Citizens for Self-Governance in California.

New York GOP pollster Jim McLaughlin has a different take. He thinks the Christie and Fiorina voters are likely to line up behind Florida Sen. Marco Rubio -- even though Christie hammered Rubio at Saturday's debate for his allegedly scripted campaign style.

“[Christie and Fiorina] were getting some of the economic conservative type of votes, from people who wanted to see someone who can come in and fix things. There is nobody really like that in the anti-politician lane,” said McLaughlin, who believes the primary race will be long and come down to Rubio, Trump, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who won the Iowa caucuses earlier this month.

Of those three, McLaughlin thinks Rubio will have the most appeal to Christie and Fiorina voters.

Meckler, Tea Party Patriots co-founder and former spokesman, doesn't entirely agree. While he believes some Fiorina supporters may go for Rubio, he sees some veering off for Cruz -- who, like Fiorina, has been particularly tough on Democrat Hillary Clinton. On Christie, he thinks while Christie himself might endorse Trump, his supporters could go to either the billionaire businessman -- or another governor.

“From a political perspective, his supporters might go to someone who is also a moderate like John Kasich,” he said.

Christie and Fiorina dropped out following their sixth- and seventh-place finishes in New Hampshire, respectively. While their polling was weak, their base of support -- about 5 percent nationally, combined -- still represents enough to give another candidate a measurable boost in a tight race.

McLaughlin, though, warned their supporters might not make much difference in the upcoming South Carolina primary contest.

“The truth of the matter is they really don’t have a lot of support in South Carolina,” he said.

FoxNews.com's Kelley Vlahos and Daniel Jativa contributed to this report.