(The Center Square) – Former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential primary Wednesday morning and declined to endorse former President Donald Trump.
“I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we have received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign,” Haley said during her remarks. “I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that.”
Haley said she has no regrets.
“In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meet in July,” Haley said. “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.
“I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee,” Haley continued. “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.”
Haley bowing out comes after a shellacking on Super Tuesday, when 15 states voted in the Republican presidential primary. While results are still coming in, it appears Haley won the state of Vermont while Trump won the remaining states: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Virginia.
During her remarks, Haley also called for a smaller federal government, attacks on socialism and the growing debt as well as the dysfunction of Congress. Haley called for term limits and standing by Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine.
“If we retreat further, there will be more war, not less,” Haley said.
Haley’s losses Tuesday continued a streak in recent months. So far, Trump had also won the primaries and/or caucuses in Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina and South Dakota.
Haley’s only bright spot was winning in Washington D.C. over the weekend.
As the losses piled up, calls for Haley to leave the race intensified.
“Man I knew Trump would have a good night but this is a rout,” U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, as the results came in Tuesday evening. “For voters, we have the next six months to convince them that DJT deserves another term. But for donors and political professionals, it’s time to unite behind our nominee. Please stop wasting time and money.”
After Tuesday, Trump has 10 times the delegates to Haley, about 1,000 delegates to her nearly 100. A candidate needs 1,215 delegates to clinch the nomination.
Now Trump stands unopposed and can focus on his Democratic opponent, President Joe Biden, who also had a sweeping victory and stands largely unopposed in his own primary.
In a victory speech Tuesday night, Biden did not mention Haley by name and instead focused on Biden, setting the tone for his attention going forward.
“No country has ever had anything like it,” Trump said in an attack on Biden for his handling of illegal immigration.
“Joe Biden,” Trump added. “If he had just left everything alone, he could have gone to the beach….so we are going to take back our country. We are going to do it right.”
