Nikki Haley has dropped out of the 2024 Republican presidential race after a humiliating Super Tuesday in which she lost fourteen states to Donald Trump and won only one.
The former South Carolina governor announced she was ending her campaign in a speech in Charleston after spending the biggest day of the primary hidden from the public eye.
In the emotional comments, he paid tribute to his mother, said the world is “on fire” because of America’s “withdrawal” and then confirmed he would not support Trump.
She then wished him “luck” and said she was unwilling to endorse him, using Margaret Thatcher’s quote: “Never just follow the crowd.” Always make your own decisions.
Thatcher in 1997 called the phrase her “life motto,” adding that “if necessary, make the crowd follow you.”
“It is now up to Donald Trump to win the votes of those inside and outside our party who did not support him,” Haley said.
Nikki Haley has dropped out of the 2024 Republican presidential race after a humiliating Super Tuesday in which she lost fourteen states to Donald Trump and won only one.
Haley left the stage without answering questions and with her two children by her side.
He referred to the large swath of his supporters who said they will not vote for Trump in November, according to exit polls.
And I hope he does. At its best, politics is about attracting people to your cause, not rejecting them.
‘In all likelihood, Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention convenes in July. I congratulate you and wish you the best. I wish the best to anyone who becomes president of the United States. Our country is too valuable to allow our differences to divide us.’
He opened the speech by saying: ‘The time has come to suspend my campaign. I said I wanted the American voice to be heard. I’ve already done it. I have no excuses.
‘And although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.
‘Our national debt will eventually crush our economy. A smaller federal government is not only necessary for our freedom, but also for our survival. The road to socialism is the road to ruin for the United States.”
Haley left the stage without answering questions and with her two children Rena and Nalin next to her. Her husband Michael is currently deployed to Africa, a place Trump has used to troll her in recent weeks.
Trump immediately launched a Truth Social post saying Haley was “DEFEATED last night” and downplayed her only victory in Vermont.
“Much of his money came from radical left Democrats, as did many of his voters, almost 50%, according to polls,” he added.
‘At this point, I hope she stays in the “race” and fights until the end!’ continued Trump, who then focused his attention in November on a series of scathing attacks on Biden.
The former South Carolina governor announced she was ending her campaign in a speech in Charleston after spending the biggest day of the primary hidden from public view.
His departure after a fierce battle with the Republican front-runner now means the general election will be a showdown most Americans fear: Joe Biden, 81, against Trump, 77.
A defiant Haley directed fiery language at Trump at the end of his campaign, claiming that he is cognitively declining and not the best candidate to beat Biden in November.
Trump started by calling her by nicknames like ‘birdbrain’ and ‘Nimrada’, based on her Indian name Nimarata, but then virtually ignored her when it became clear she was going to dominate the Republican race.
She survived as the GOP’s last major rival, Trump, and won the two-person race she wanted, but was devoured by Trump’s overwhelming popularity among MAGA voters and his Republican base.
‘Are we really going to have two 80-year-olds running for president in this country? “It’s a fact that when you’re his age, you suffer from mental decline,” he told CBS News a few days ago, applying the label equally to the leader of his party.
On Tuesday, Haley told Fox & Friends, “I didn’t hear him promise me that he would support me if he won, so I don’t know why I have to go and promise him that I would support him.”
Haley suspended her presidential campaign after being annihilated by Donald Trump in the Super Tuesday states.
She beat a group of male contenders she sometimes called the ‘boys,’ including former heavyweight Ron DeSantis, who beat her in Iowa.
But he failed to capture his home state of South Carolina, which could have provided impetus to what became an insurgent campaign.
Instead, she failed to win any race other than Vermont on Tuesday and earlier in Washington, D.C., where just over 2,000 voters gave her a victory that Trump’s team derided as making her the “queen of the swamp.” .
Haley began her campaign trying to walk the difficult line of distinguishing herself from Trump without openly criticizing him while seeking space in a Republican electorate dedicated to the front-runner.
She was the first to raise questions about President Joe Biden’s mental and cognitive capacity, but then directed that criticism at Trump himself as the race narrowed.
In January, he questioned why the nation should be forced to hold an election between “two 80-year-olds” (Biden is 81 and Trump is 77).
Trump ignored her at first, beyond complaining that her campaign was disloyal.
But after she gave a post-New Hampshire speech that Trump said sounded like a victory lap, he ramped up his criticism, deriding her as “bird-brained.”
The former UN ambassador who served during the Trump administration criticized Trump’s stance on the war against Ukraine and called for continued US support.
As she maintained her campaign early in the year, she sharpened her attacks and eventually won the applause of “Never Trumpers” who saw it useful for her to weaken Trump even if he had no path to victory.
Haley even began focusing on Trump’s legal problems, first using keywords like “chaos” and then saying he couldn’t beat Biden while he was constantly distracted by his legal problems.
Haley survived as Trump’s last major Republican challenger, winning the two-person race she wanted, but was devoured by Trump’s overwhelming popularity among MAGA voters and his Republican base.
On Monday morning, across the Super Tuesday states, Haley was resisting calls to drop out, even without announcing any public schedule for herself.
“As much as everyone wants to kick me out, I’m not ready to come out yet,” she told Fox & Friends.
He made some of the same arguments as Hillary Clinton when she maintained her 2008 campaign against Barack Obama with an appeal that highlighted her groundbreaking career.
“I’m still sitting there fighting for people who want to have a voice, so they deserve it,” Haley added.
Money didn’t seem to be a problem. She had $14 million in the bank to start the year and said he raised $12 million in February alone.
She bested Trump in January and publicly noted that she spent $50 million on legal fees from entities that supported her campaign.
But American for Prosperity Action, the powerful network backed by billionaire Charles Koch, announced it was suspending its support after Haley lost her home state.