Nikki Haley drops out of Republican presidential primary

After a crushing Super Tuesday, Indian American Republican Presidential aspirant Nikki Haley finally ended her yearlong bid to challenge former President Donald Trump for the party’s nomination for the 2024 race to the White House.

In brief remarks Wednesday morning, Haley declined to endorse Trump, as most of her other GOP primary rivals have already done, instead urging him to give her more moderate-minded supporters a reason to back him in November.

READ: Nikki Haley scores first primary victory in DC (March 4, 2024)

“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support him,” Haley said to reporters assembled at her campaign headquarters in Daniel Island, South Carolina.

“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.”

Haley’s departure follows a brutal series of losses in states across the map on Super Tuesday, where she failed to halt Trump’s momentum.

The first Indian American to get cabinet rank as US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, Haley was the first Republican to launch her presidential bid after he announced his campaign in late 2022, and was the last to remain in the GOP contest after other challengers bowed out.

Only woman to seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, Haley made history in winning her first primary in Washington, DC on Sunday. She became the first woman to win a GOP presidential primary. She won her first state on Tuesday, narrowly beating Trump in Vermont.

Haley last year signed a pledge issued by the Republican National Committee to support the eventual nominee, a requirement to participate in the RNC’s primary debates. But in recent days, Haley said she no longer felt bound to the pledge.

After she finished 20 points behind Trump in her home state of South Carolina, the Koch network’s Americans For Prosperity Action, a powerful conservative group supporting her run, announced it would no longer spend money supporting her campaign.

Haley’s campaign boasted its highest fundraising month of the campaign in January, reporting that it raised $16.5 million and picked up 70,000 new donors.

Beginning in the fall — and as candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina crashed in polling — Haley became the top choice of major Republican donors, and even top Democratic financiers.

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Haley was defiant as she faced calls from influential Republicans to bow out, scrambling instead to breathe new life into her campaign.

After results posted Sunday night showing Haley capturing nearly 63% of the vote in DC, Trump went on social media, once again calling Haley “Birdbrain” and “a loser.”

Trump had seemingly locked up most of the Super Tuesday states before any real campaigning took place, with the rank-and-file squarely behind him and endorsement after endorsement from prominent Republicans, including former primary rivals.

Haley, meanwhile, secured the endorsement of only three members of Congress, her longtime friend and former state legislative colleague Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), followed by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine).