Nikki Haley suspends 2024 presidential campaign
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD)- Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley suspended her campaign for president Wednesday following sweeping losses in all but one Republican primary on Super Tuesday.
The announcement came Wednesday morning during a short speech in front of campaign staff, volunteers, and her family at Haley’s campaign headquarters on Daniel Island.
“I am filled with gratitude for the outpouring of support we’ve received from across our great country. But the time has now come to suspend my campaign. I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets. And although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in,” she said.
Her exit leaves Trump as the last remaining major candidate seeking the Republican nomination. The former president is on track to reach the necessary 1,215 delegates to clinch the nomination later this month and will now pivot to focus solely on his anticipated rematch with President Joe Biden in November.
The former U.N. Ambassador, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023, promising a “new generation” of leader. She initially said in 2021 that she would not run for president in 2024 if Trump did, but later changed course.
She spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning the GOP against embracing Trump, whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat Biden in the general election.
Haley congratulated Trump on his likely ascent to the nomination but stopped short of endorsing him on Wednesday.
“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us,” she said.
Instead, she called on Trump to “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond” who did not support him.
“I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee,” Haley said. “But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, ‘Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.'”
“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. At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing,” she continued.
As she got out of the race, Trump took to Truth Social to criticize Haley while also asking her supporters to get behind him. Trump warned donors earlier this year that anyone who contributed to Haley’s campaign would be “permanently barred from the MAGA camp.”
“Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion, despite the fact that Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to vote in Vermont and various other Republican Primaries,” Trump wrote. “I’d like to thank my family, friends, and the Great Republican Party for helping me to produce, by far, the most successful Super Tuesday in HISTORY, and would further like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.”
Haley, who lost her home state of South Carolina’s contest in February, notched victories in the District of Columbia over the weekend and Vermont on Tuesday. Ultimately, though, she was unable to overtake Trump on his way to a third straight nomination.
But, she leaves the race having made history as the first woman in U.S. history to win a Republican presidential primary.
The Biden campaign also weighed in on Haley’s exit from the race Wednesday, commending her for having the “courage” to run for President and take on Trump.
“It takes a lot of courage to run for President — that’s especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump,” Biden said in a statement. “Nikki Haley was willing to speak the truth about Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin.”
The president made his own plea for Haley’s supporters to line up behind his reelection campaign, arguing that Trump “made it clear” that he doesn’t want them.
“I want to be clear: There is a place for them [Haley’s supporters] in my campaign. I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing for the rule of law, on treating with each other decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.”
Haley has made clear she doesn’t want to serve as Trump’s vice president or run on a third-party ticket arranged by the group No Labels. She leaves the race with an elevated national profile that could help her in a future presidential run.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
