Nikki Haley drops out of 2024 race, doesn't endorse Trump for GOP presidential nomination

Posted 51 days ago

From WWW.FOXNEWS.COM

Thirteen months after she launched her 2024 Republican presidential campaign in Charleston, South Carolina, Nikki Haley ended her White House bid.

The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U. N. ambassador in former President Donald Trump's administration on Wednesday morning announced "the time has now come to suspend my campaign."

"I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done it. 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," Haley said as she spoke at her presidential campaign headquarters on Daniel Island, in her hometown of Charleston.

But Haley did not immediately endorse Trump, who is on course to clinch the GOP presidential nomination in the next week or two.

"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," Haley said as she pointed to those who supported her during her White House run.

"This is now his time for choosing," she emphasized.

The former president on Tuesday swept 14 of the 15 states from coast to coast that held Republican presidential primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday, moving Trump much closer to locking up the GOP nomination and into a general election rematch with President Biden.

Trump took to his Truth Social platform in a posting as Haley's speech was wrapping up to take aim at his now former rival.

"Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion," the former president touted.

Trump also said he'd "like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation."

Biden also issued a statement, complimenting Haley and courting her supporters.

"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," the president wrote. "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."

And Biden noted that "I know that Democrats and Republicans and Independents disagree on many issues and hold strong convictions. That’s a good thing. That’s what America stands for. But I also know this: what unites Democrats and Republicans and Independents is a love for America."

Haley, who for a month had said she would stay in the race at least through Super Tuesday, held no public event or speech on Tuesday night - as she watched election results in private with her campaign team - and remained mum on any plans going forward.

Trump's near sweep of the Super Tuesday states - Haley narrowly edged the former president in Vermont - turned up the volume on calls by fellow Republicans for Haley to end her White House bid.

"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," Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders - a former Trump White House press secretary who has endorsed the former president - said in an interview on Fox News "America Reports" Tuesday afternoon.

But in a "Fox and Friends" interview on Tuesday morning, as the polls opened in the Super Tuesday contests, Haley didn't sound like a candidate dropping out.

"As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I'm not ready to get out yet. I'm still sitting there fighting for the people that want a voice," Haley emphasized.

In a statement Tuesday night, the Haley campaign said "we’re honored to have received the support of millions of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests."

And pointing a bunch of Super Tuesday states where Haley captured anywhere from a quarter to over a third of the vote in the GOP contests, the campaign argued that "today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better."

Trump made no mention of Haley in his 20-minute-long victory speech Tuesday night in front of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.

But Taylor Budowich, who steers the Trump-aligned super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., in a statement Wednesday morning congratulated the former president "for vanquishing his opponents in record time. The same movement that powered President Trump to a primary victory will power him to a general election victory."

While Haley didn't endorse Trump, top Haley surrogate Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina told Fox News on Wednesday morning that "if not today, she will" support the former president.

Norman, who endorsed Haley a year ago, added in a "Fox and Friends" interview that  "at the end of the day, she will come on board."

The congressman added that he will reach out and call Trump in the coming hours.

In a Republican presidential field that topped a dozen candidates last summer, Haley was the final remaining rival to Trump, who for months has been the commanding frontrunner in the GOP race as he makes his third straight White House bid.

Haley – who in 2021 and 2022 made numerous trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, the two lead-off states in the Republican presidential nominating calendar – formally launched her 2024 campaign in February of last year.

Haley polled in the single digits for much of last year and faced an uphill climb to win the nomination. But courtesy of well-regarded performances in the late summer and autumn in the first three GOP primary debates, Haley grabbed momentum and saw her poll numbers soar.... (Read more)












Latest News