NEW YORK (AP) — nikki haley The president suspended his campaign and resigned on Wednesday following disastrous defeats across the United States on Super Tuesday. donald trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Haley did not endorse the former president in a speech in Charleston, South Carolina. Instead, she appealed to the support of moderate Republicans and independents who support her.
“It's now up to Donald Trump to win the votes not only within our party, but also those outside the party who didn't support him. And I hope he does,” she said. said. “The best thing about politics is bringing people to your cause, not pushing them away. And our conservative cause needs more people.”
Haley, a former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations, was Trump's first major rival when he took office. jumped into the race She spent the final stages of her campaign actively warning Republicans not to support President Trump. She argued that Trump is too preoccupied with chaos and personal grievances to defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.
What you need to know today about the Super Tuesday election
Her resignation will allow President Trump to focus solely on his expected rematch with Biden in November.The former president is doing well. Obtain the required 1,215 delegates The Republican nomination will be finalized later this month.
Ms. Haley's loss was a painful, if predictable, blow to voters, donors and Republican leaders who had opposed Mr. Trump and his fiery brand of “Make America Great Again.” She was particularly popular among moderate and college-educated voters, a constituency likely to play a pivotal role in the general election. It's unclear whether Trump, who recently vowed to permanently ban Haley's donors from his campaign, can ultimately unify the deeply divided party.
President Trump declared on Tuesday night that the Republican Party was united behind him, but in a statement shortly afterward, Haley's press secretary, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said, “Unity means “We are united.'' Achievement cannot be achieved just by making claims.”
“Right now, there is still a large segment of Republican primary voters in each state who express deep concerns about Donald Trump,” Perez-Cuvas said. “That's not the unity our party needs to succeed. The Republican Party and America will be better off if we address the concerns of those voters.”
Haley has made it clear that she does not want to serve as President Trump's vice president or run on a third-party ticket arranged by the group No Labels. She leaves the race with a boost to her national profile, which could help her in future presidential bids.
Republican presidential candidate and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley comments at a campaign event in Forth Worth, Texas, Monday, March 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Immediately after Wednesday's speech, the Trump campaign falsely claimed in a fundraising email that Haley supported his candidacy and did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the message. Early this week, Haley said she no longer feels bound by a pledge that requires all Republican candidates to ultimately endorse their party's nominee in order to participate in primary debates.
In social media posts, Trump continued to mock his former rival, but also called on “all of Haley's supporters to join us in the greatest movement in the history of this country.” “Biden is the enemy and is destroying our country,” he wrote. “Make America Great Again!!!”
On Wednesday, Biden welcomed voters who supported Haley and acknowledged that Trump had previously rejected her supporters.
Republican Nikki Haley is suspending her campaign. AP correspondent Julie Walker reports.
“Donald Trump has made it clear that he does not want Nikki Haley supporters. Let me be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said in a statement. “I know there are many things we don't agree on. But we need to preserve American democracy, uphold the rule of law, treat each other with civility and dignity and respect, and NATO. I hope and believe that we can find common ground on the fundamental issues of preserving and confronting America's adversaries.”
By continuing the campaign so far, Haley has gained enough support He drew support from suburbanites and college-educated voters, underscoring Trump's glaring weakness with these groups.
An AP VoteCast survey of Republican primary and caucus voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina found that 61% to 76% of Haley supporters said they would support Trump if she became the Republican nominee. Very dissatisfied, he replied that he would not vote for him in the next election. general election in November. In the early Republican head-to-head contests, voters who said they would not vote for Trump in the fall represented a small but important group of voters: 2 in 10 voters in Iowa and 3 in 10 voters in New Hampshire. of South Carolina voters, and one-quarter of South Carolina voters.
Haley will withdraw from the 2024 presidential race after making history as the first woman to win a Republican primary. She defeated Trump in the District of Columbia on Sunday and in Vermont on Tuesday.
she she insisted on staying in the race He traveled across the country on Super Tuesday, campaigning in states where Republican races were being held. In the end, she was unable to keep Trump off the runway for a third consecutive nomination.
Haley's supporters say her accomplishments so far have exceeded most of the political world's expectations.
she had was initially excluded But she changed her mind and ultimately announced her candidacy three months after President Trump, citing, among other things, the country's economic problems and the need for “generational change.” Haley, 52, later called for competency testing for politicians over 75, a move that would be a blow to both Trump, 77, and Biden, 81.
Her candidacy took time to gather donors and support, but ultimately outperformed all of her other Republican rivals, including the governor of Florida. Ron DeSantisformer Vice President mike pence And Sen. Tim ScottAnd the money flowed in until the end. She announced that her campaign raised more than $12 million in February alone.
Although she was popular among many Republican donors, independent voters and the “No Trump” crowd, she criticized the criminal case against him as politically motivated and said that if the president This was despite the fact that he had promised to pardon him if he was found guilty in federal court.
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Kinard reported from Washington. Meg Kinard can be contacted at: http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAPSteve Peoples can be reached at: http://twitter.com/sppeoples.
