Nikki Haley announced the suspension of her campaign for the White House on Wednesday after suffering several defeats across the country on Super Tuesday, leaving Donald Trump as the last major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.
The former US ambassador to the UN stopped short of supporting the former president during a speech Wednesday morning in Charleston, South Carolina. Instead, she encouraged him to win the support of the coalition of moderate Republicans and independent voters who supported her.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to win the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support him. And I hope he does,” she said.
“At its best, politics is about rallying people to your cause, not pushing them away. And our conservative cause sorely needs more people.”
Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations, was Donald Trump’s first major rival when she entered the race in February 2023.
She spent the final phase of her campaign vigorously warning the Republican Party against nominating Mr. Trump, who she says is too consumed by chaos and personal grievances to defeat President Joe Biden in office. ‘presidential election.
His departure allows Donald Trump to focus solely on his probable revenge in November against Joe Biden. The former president is on track to reach the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination later this month.
Trump, a unifier?
Nikki Haley’s defeat marks a painful, if predictable, blow to voters, donors and Republican Party officials who have opposed Donald Trump and his fiery “Make America Great Again” policies. She was particularly popular among moderate and college-educated voters – individuals who will likely play a central role in the general election.
It’s unclear whether Donald Trump, who recently said that donors to Mme Haley would be permanently banned from his movement, could finally unify a deeply divided party.
Mr. Trump said Tuesday night that the Republican Party was united behind him, but in a statement shortly afterward, Nikki Haley’s spokeswoman, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said: “Unity is not achieved by simply affirming: “We are united””.
“Today, in every state, there remain large numbers of Republican primary voters who express deep concerns about Donald Trump,” Ms.me Perez-Cubas.
Nikki Haley has made it clear she doesn’t want to become Donald Trump’s vice president or run as an independent. She leaves the race with high national popularity, which could help her in a future presidential campaign.
Perseverant
Nikki Haley made history as the first woman to win a Republican primary. She defeated Mr. Trump in the District of Columbia on Sunday and in Vermont on Tuesday.
She had insisted she would stay in the race until Super Tuesday and traveled across the country to campaign in states holding Republican elections. Ultimately, she failed to deflect Mr. Trump from his trajectory toward a third consecutive nomination.
The allies of Mme Haley notes, however, that she has exceeded most political expectations in getting this far.
She had initially ruled out running against Donald Trump in 2024. But she changed her mind and ended up launching her candidacy three months after him, citing among other things the country’s economic difficulties and the need for a “generational change “.
Mme Haley, 52, then called for skills tests for politicians over 75 – a blow to both Mr Trump, who is 77, and President Joe Biden, who is 81 years.
Her candidacy took time to attract donors and support, but she ultimately outlasted all of her other Republican rivals, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and Senator Tim Scott, her fellow South Carolinian whom she appointed to the Senate in 2012. And the money flowed in all the way. His campaign says it raised more than US$12 million in February alone.
