Nikki Haley abandons the presidential race against Trump, who remains the only Republican candidate

The essential. Nikki Haley has announced that she is suspending her presidential campaign following her near-total defeat against Donald Trump on Super Tuesday. The former governor of South Carolina ends a race in a Republican primary that Trump dominated from the beginning and in which she was never a favorite.

Nikki Haley was only able to win two electoral appointments: in the small progressive state of Vermont and in Washington DC. The capital has a prominent anti-Trump Republican bloc.
Despite the defeat, the former ambassador to the United Nations promises to be a recurring asset in Republican politics ahead of the 2028 presidential elections. Especially if Trump loses against Biden.

“It’s Donald Trump’s turn to win over the votes of those in our party and beyond who have not supported him,” Nikki Haley said in her end-of-campaign speech. “And I hope he does.”

The last. Nikki Haley’s departure it looked accelerated by Trump’s victories in 14 of the 15 states that held Republican primaries on Super Tuesday.

The former governor only narrowly missed victory in Vermont, hardly a crucial state considering that Trump won by more than 50 points in the most populous states of Texas and California.
Haley has long lacked a route to victory, but the losses on Super Tuesday ended any chance of an upset.

Mathematically, Trump is just a couple of weeks away from reaching the 1,215 delegates needed to become the de facto Republican presidential nominee. He will officially be so at the Republican National Convention in September, unless the courts prevent it.

The future of Nikki Haley

Vice President? During much of the Republican primaries, media and experts saw Nikki Haley as the more than viable option to accompany Trump on the presidential ticket. The last two months of the campaign have almost completely erased that possibility.

The former governor herself said in January that her vice presidential bid with Trump was «discarded». Haley reiterated that position in February.
For his part, Trump assured in January that Haley “He doesn’t have presidential credentials“and said that the former ambassador “probably will not be chosen as vice president.”

Haley has been highly critical of Trump, exposing weaknesses such as age or open judicial fronts that could distract him from the main mission: defeating Biden in November. Even so, during her resignation speech Haley assured that “differences cannot divide us.”

Chairwoman? If Haley wants to be president one day, starting with the 2028 presidential election in which Trump will not be able to compete, her path possibly pass for supporting the former president.

Trump has dominated the Republican Party for years, as he has demonstrated in the 2024 Republican primaries.
Avoiding supporting his candidacy would mean becoming an enemy of a majority of the Republican electorate that has voted for Trump until now.

Whatever happens, Nikki Haley’s results promise to make her one of the most prominent figures in the party for years to come.

If Trump loses against Biden, he will have arguments to say that she is the clear alternative to get the Republicans to win elections again.
If Trump wins, his role is less clear. Profiles like yours have less and less place in the Republican Party of Make America Great Again.

In that last scenario, the easy step for Nikki Haley will be the one that many other Republicans who want a future in the Republican Party have followed: kissing the ring.