Haley to exit 2024 race, clearing path for Trump’s nomination

Nikki Haley will suspend her Republican presidential campaign Wednesday, according to sources familiar with her plans.

Haley is slated to deliver remarks in Charleston, S.C., at 10 a.m. EST.

The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news, reported that Haley will not endorse former President Trump on Wednesday, but will call on him “to earn the support of Republicans and independent voters who backed her.”

Haley’s decision puts an end to what had become a two-person race between her and Trump and all but guarantees the former president will secure the Republican nomination.

Haley sought to be the main Republican alternative to Trump and seemingly accomplished that goal. She surprised many when she started to gain significant momentum late last year, ultimately surpassing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in most polls. But Haley was unable to overtake the former president, who remained the consistent front-runner for the GOP nomination.

Still, Haley attained some clear successes from her campaign even as she will not be the nominee. She was the last one standing against Trump in a GOP field that included a dozen candidates at its peak.

Haley became the first woman to win a Republican primary with her victory in the Washington, D.C., GOP contest this past weekend. She also won a state with her surprise win in Vermont on Super Tuesday.

Haley performed decently in each of the early-voting states in the lead-up to Tuesday’s races despite Trump’s dominance. The high point of her campaign came when she received more than 40 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary in January.

As her campaign continued, she pointed to the roughly quarter or more of Republican primary voters who supported her as evidence of voters’ discontent with Trump becoming the nominee.

But Trump’s wins in most of the other Super Tuesday states made him almost mathematically certain to be the party’s nominee.

She still took double-digit losses to Trump in New Hampshire and her home state of South Carolina last month.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as Trump’s United Nations ambassador, became the second major Republican to join the race after the former president. She initially said in 2021 that she would not run for president in 2024 if Trump did, but later changed course.

Haley pitched herself as the best opportunity to move on from the former president, whom she attacked during the race on various issues including the rising national debt during his presidency and his foreign policy stances.

She also criticized the “chaos” she said followed Trump, and called for a new generation of leaders to move on from both him and President Biden. She repeatedly pointed to polling that showed her performing the strongest of all the top Republican presidential candidates against Biden in hypothetical general election match-ups.

Haley’s critiques of Trump became increasingly sharper in recent weeks over the former president’s remarks about her husband. He questioned in rallies where he was and why he was not on the campaign trail with her; he serves in the South Carolina National Guard and has been deployed to Africa.

She also slammed him for comments he made indicating that the U.S. may not help its NATO allies against a potential Russian attack if they do not meet their recommended defense spending levels.

Haley had several strong debate performances in which audiences appeared to view her as at least one of the winners. She saw a significant uptick in the polls that sent her into a battle with DeSantis for second place in the field, and her rise in the polls also led to a significant increase in fundraising for her candidacy.

By the day of the Iowa caucuses, polls had shown her moving up into second place ahead of DeSantis, who had spent more time and devoted significant resources to campaigning in the Hawkeye State. Haley ultimately came in third, but was just 2 points behind DeSantis.

She declared in a speech following the results that Iowa had made the contest a “two-person race” between her and Trump.

Haley also seemed to be in a position to possibly upset Trump in the first-in-the-nation primary of New Hampshire, as polls consistently showed her on the rise there for months.

But Haley could not rally enough support to stop Trump from taking both of the first states to vote, falling short of a needed boost to potentially stop his nomination.

Updated at 10:47 a.m. EST