Nikki Haley suspends her campaign, leaves Trump as last Republican candidate

Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign on Wednesday after being soundly defeated across the country on Super Tuesday leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nominationHaley didnt endorse the former president in a speech in Charleston South Carolina Instead she challenged him to win the support of the moderate Republicans and independent voters who supported her 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 she said At its best politics is about bringing people into your cause not turning them away And our conservative cause badly needs more peopleHaley a former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador was Trumps first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023 She spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning the GOP against embracing Trump whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat President Joe Biden in the general electionHer departure clears Trump to focus solely on his likely rematch in November with Biden The former president is on track to reach the necessary 1215 delegates to clinch the Republican nomination later this monthHaleys defeat marks a painful if predictable blow to those voters donors and Republican Party officials who opposed Trump and his fiery brand of Make America Great Again politics She was especially popular among moderates and collegeeducated voters constituencies that will likely play a pivotal role in the general election Its unclear whether Trump who recently declared that Haley donors would be permanently banned from his movement can ultimately unify a deeply divided partyHaley planned to address donors on a Zoom meeting Wednesday afternoon according to two people familiar with the plans Trump on Tuesday night declared that the GOP was united behind him but in a statement shortly afterward Haley spokesperson Olivia PerezCubas said Unity is not achieved by simply claiming Were unitedToday in state after state there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump PerezCubas said That is not the unity our party needs for success Addressing those voters concerns will make the Republican Party and America betterHaley has made clear she doesnt want to serve as Trumps vice president or run on a thirdparty ticket arranged by the group No Labels She leaves the race with an elevated national profile that could help her in a future presidential runSwiftly following her speech Wednesday Trumps campaign in a fundraising email falsely claimed that Haley had endorsed his candidacy and did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the message Earlier this week Haley said she no longer feels bound by a pledge that required all GOP contenders to support the partys eventual nominee in order to participate in the primary debatesIn a social media post Trump continued to mock his former rival while at the same time extending an invitation to all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation BIDEN IS THE ENEMY HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY he wrote MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAINOn Wednesday Biden welcomed any voters who had backed Haley acknowledging Trumps previous rejection of her supporters Donald Trump made it clear he doesnt want Nikki Haleys supporters I want to be clear There is a place for them in my campaign Biden said in a statement I know there is a lot we wont agree on But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy on standing up for the rule of law on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect on preserving NATO and standing up to Americas adversaries I hope and believe we can find common groundA group that had targeted independents and Democrats to vote for Haley over Trump in Republican primaries is now pushing those voters to back Biden in November On Wednesday Primary Pivot said it was pivoting again with a new initiative Haley Voters for Biden which might ultimately amount to basically encouraging Democrats to revert back to supporting their partys likely eventual nominee By staying in the campaign until now Haley drew enough support from suburbanites and collegeeducated voters to highlight Trumps apparent weaknesses with those groupsIn AP VoteCast surveys conducted among Republican primary and caucus voters in Iowa New Hampshire and South Carolina between 6137 and 7637 of Haleys supporters said they would be so dissatisfied if Trump became the GOP nominee that they wouldnt vote for him in the November general election Voters in the early Republican headtohead contests who said they wouldnt vote for Trump in the fall represented a small but significant segment of the electorate 2 in 10 Iowa voters onethird of New Hampshire voters and onequarter of South Carolina votersHaley leaves the 2024 presidential contest having made history as the first woman to win a Republican primary contest She beat Trump in the District of Columbia on Sunday and in Vermont on Tuesday She had insisted she would stay in the race through Super Tuesday and crossed the country campaigning in states holding Republican contests Ultimately she was unable to knock Trump off his glide path to a third straight nominationHaleys allies note that she exceeded most of the political worlds expectations by making it as far as she did She had initially ruled out running against Trump in 2024 But she changed her mind and ended up launching her bid three months after he did citing among other things the countrys economic troubles and the need for generational change Haley 52 later called for competency tests for politicians over the age of 75 a knock on both Trump who is 77 and Biden who is 81