Nikki Haley ended her long-shot challenge to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on Wednesday, ensuring the former president will be the party’s candidate in a rematch with Democratic president Joe Biden in November’s election.
Ms Haley, the former South Carolina governor and Mr Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, bowed out a day after Super Tuesday, when Mr Trump beat her soundly in 14 of 15 Republican nominating contests.
“The time has now come to suspend my campaign,” Ms Haley told supporters during a speech in Charleston. “I have no regrets.”
She said it was likely Mr Trump - who repeatedly belittled her candidacy - would be the Republican nominee, but she did not endorse him.
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“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him,” she said. “And I hope he does that.”
Drawing on her foreign policy experience at the UN, Ms Haley said it was important to continue US global leadership. Throughout her campaign, Ms Haley said the United States must help Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression, a position at odds with Mr Trump.
“If we retreat further, there will be more war, not less,” she said.
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Mr Trump did capture the endorsement on Wednesday of Mitch McConnell, the longtime Senate Republican leader who some party hardliners considered insufficiently allied with the former president.
“It should come as no surprise that as nominee, he will have my support,” said Mr McConnell, who is stepping down as leader.
There was no indication Mr Trump would moderate his message.
Just as Ms Haley was conceding the race, he criticised her before inviting her supporters to join him. “Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion,” Mr Trump wrote on the Truth Social media platform.
In contrast, Mr Biden praised Ms Haley for daring to “speak the truth” about Mr Trump and extended his own invitation to her supporters.
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said in a statement.
[ Keith Duggan: Super Tuesday primary sweep confirms the second coming of Donald Trump ]
Ms Haley lasted longer than any other Republican challenger to Mr Trump but never posed a serious threat to the former president, whose iron grip on the party’s base remains firm despite multiple criminal indictments.
The rematch between Mr Trump (77), and Biden (81) - the first repeat US presidential contest since 1956 - is one that few Americans want. Opinion polls show both Mr Biden and Mr Trump have low approval ratings among voters.
The election promises to be deeply divisive in a country already riven by political polarisation. Mr Biden has cast Mr Trump as an existential danger to democratic principles, while Mr Trump has sought to re-litigate his false claims that he won in 2020.
Ms Haley (52), drew support from deep-pocketed donors intent on stopping Mr Trump from winning a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, particularly after she notched a series of strong performances at debates that Mr Trump opted to skip.
She ultimately failed to attract conservative voters.
But her stronger showing among moderate Republicans and independents highlighted how Mr Trump’s scorched-earth style of politics could make him vulnerable in the November 5th election against Biden.
As in 2020, the race is likely to come down to a handful of swing states, thanks to the winner-take-all, state-by-state electoral college system that determines the presidential election. Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin are all expected to be closely contested in November.
The central issues of the campaign have already come into focus. Despite low unemployment, a red-hot stock market and easing inflation, voters experiencing post-pandemic inflation have voiced dissatisfaction with Biden on the economy.
Mr Biden’s other major weakness is the state of the US-Mexico border, where a surge of migrants overwhelmed the system after Mr Biden eased some Trump-era policies. Mr Trump’s hawkish stance on immigration - including a promise to initiate the largest deportation effort in history - is at the core of his campaign, just as it was in 2016.
Voters expect Mr Trump would do a better job on both the economy and immigration, according to opinion polls.
Mr Trump may be dogged by criminal charges throughout the year. The federal case charging him with trying to overturn the 2020 election, perhaps the weightiest he faces, has been paused while Mr Trump pursues a long-shot argument that he is immune from prosecution.
Mr Biden has said Mr Trump poses a threat to democracy, citing the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021, by a mob of Trump supporters seeking to reverse Mr Biden’s 2020 victory.
Abortion, too, will play a role after the nine-member US supreme court, buoyed by three Trump appointees, eliminated a nationwide right to terminate pregnancies in 2022. The subject has become a political liability for Republicans, helping Democrats exceed expectations in the 2022 midterm elections.
Ms Haley had been among the first Republican contenders to enter the race in February 2023, but she only garnered attention after her standout debate performances later in the year.
Through it all, she was reluctant to completely disavow her former boss. Mr Trump showed no such reticence, frequently insulting her intelligence and Indian heritage.
Only in the last months of her campaign did Ms Haley begin to forcefully hit back at Mr Trump, questioning his mental acuity, calling him a liar and saying he was too afraid to debate her.
Still, she said that as president she would pardon Mr Trump if he were convicted in any of the criminal cases he faces, a position she never abandoned. - Reuters