Former South Carolina Governor and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley will officially announce the suspension of her 2024 presidential campaign. Her attempt at winning the GOP nomination — already a long shot — lost whatever hope remained as Donald Trump cruised through Super Tuesday’s primaries with a near-clean sweep.
Haley has won only two primaries totaling 89 delegates — Washington D.C. and Vermont — while former President Donald Trump has amassed 1012 for the 1215 required to clinch the nomination. Haley lost even her own home state of South Carolina by a substantial margin.
Nikki Haley drops out of the Republican presidential race after Super Tuesday defeat, not endorsing Trump. Trump now in lead with 1,040 delegates. Republican calls for unity behind Trump, gearing up for 2024 election. https://t.co/v9jF0A7urF
— The America One News (@am1_news) March 6, 2024
While Trump’s Super Tuesday tsunami has finally caused Haley to face reality, she had been encouraged to exit the race as far back as the New Hampshire primary. All other significant candidates had dropped out following the Iowa caucus.
In the “participation trophy” factoids category, Haley’s two primary wins were the first ever by a woman in a GOP presidential primary.
Whatever appeal Haley may have had to “establishment” Republicans, her brand was no match for the proven record of Donald Trump in his term as president. Additionally, the attempts by Trump’s opponents to defeat him in the courts with fabricated criminal charges and obscenely inflated civil penalties have backfired. The backlash has supercharged the Trump campaign in a manner Haley could not counter.
It is not known yet whether Haley will pursue running as an independent. She has stopped short of endorsing Donald Trump. Most of Trump’s former primary opponents, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, have done so. The party is overwhelmingly urging everyone to unite and rally behind Donald Trump.
In a speech on Wednesday, Haley appeared ambiguous about her support for the former president: “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and I hope he does that.”
In a FoxNews interview, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee said: “I do think it is time for her to step aside and let the party rally fully around Donald Trump so that he can take Joe Biden on and beat him in November.”
Looking forward to a Trump vs. Biden election, recent polling shows Trump leading the president in key battleground states.
