Nikki Haleysuspended her 2024 presidential campaign on Wednesday morning, accepting Republican voters' clear preference to keepDonald Trumpin the driver’s seat of the GOP.
Saying she was “filled with gratitude” for the support she had received in the little more than a year since launching her campaign, Haley told a South Carolina crowd, “I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets.”
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in the party who did not support him,” Haley added.
Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg via Getty
The former South Carolina governor beat the odds in a crowded primary race when sheemerged as the strongest challengerto Trump in January — but as he securedvictory after victory, the delegate math proved near-impossible for Haley to overcome. After Super Tuesday, at which point she had only won two out of 26 contests, her fate was sealed.
Trump now finds himself solidly on course to challenge incumbentJoe Bidenin November, so long as his legal challenges don’t interfere.
Nikki Haley speaks to Iowans on the night of the Republican caucuses on Jan. 15, 2024.Joe Raedle/Getty
Joe Raedle/Getty
Haley, 52, was elected South Carolina’s first female governor in 2010 and served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under Trump from January 2017until her resignationin December 2018.
After leaving the Trump administration, sheboth embraced and pushed back againsther former boss, at one point calling his rhetoric “so unnecessary” and at another saying he “tells the world what it needs to hear.”
She officiallydeclared her candidacy for presidentin February 2023, announcing the campaign on social media with a promise to prioritize fiscal responsibility, border security and foreign relations.
Nikki Haley at a New Hampshire campaign event on Jan. 16, 2024.Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty
Adam Glanzman/Bloomberg via Getty
Haley was one of the few Republican candidates to go after Trump during the election cycle — even as he maintained a significant lead in the polls.
In an August presidential debate, she called Trump, 77, “the most disliked politician in America.”
“It is time for a new generational conservative leader," Haley said during the debate, which aired on Fox News. “We have to look at the fact that three-quarters of Americans don’t want a rematch between Trump and Biden. And we have to face the fact that Trump is the most disliked politician in America. We can’t win a general election that way.”
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In the same debate, she criticized Trump over his handling of federal spending, saying, “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”
source: people.com
