Nikki Haley Drops Out

(RepublicanNews.org) – Nikki Haley has officially dropped out of the race to become the GOP’s presidential candidate after losing 14 state primaries to Donald Trump on “Super Tuesday,” leaving Trump in his continued position as the likeliest candidate to become the Republican nominee for November’s elections. Haley did claim one victory in the “Super Tuesday” battle, beating Trump in Vermont by just four percentage points of the vote, but this was not enough to keep her in the running.

Haley closed her campaign on Wednesday, March 6th, in a restricted-access event she hosted in her campaign’s offices in South Charleston, giving a speech in which she reiterated her determination to continue to fight for the causes close to her heart. She spoke of a need for the U.S. to reduce the size of its government, stating that the “road to socialism” would be “the road to ruin”. She stated her commitment to her party, calling herself a “conservative Republican”, and congratulating her former rival Donald Trump. Although she chose to wish him well as the presumptive Republican candidate, she refused to endorse him, a position echoed by many of her supporters. According to a poll taken by ABC News, a majority of Haley supporters in the states of California, Virginia, and North Carolina, also would not commit to endorsing the Republican nominee should Haley fail to win the race.

This lack of support for Trump has not gone unnoticed by the current president and likely Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Speaking after Haley’s announcement, he took the opportunity to encourage former Haley voters to support his campaign instead of Trump’s, saying that Trump had made it clear that he did not want the support of Haley’s voters. Trump had previously claimed that much of Haley’s campaign funds and supporters came from “Radical Left Democrats”.

Trump, who had previously mocked Haley as a “birdbrain”, did not talk about her in his “Super Tuesday” victory speech. Instead, he focused on what he viewed as the main issues facing the country, calling the U.S. a dying country that could be made great again, as per his famous campaign slogan. He pledged his commitment to closing the U.S.-Mexican border to illegal crossings, as well as to deport criminal migrants.