LONGSHOT Republican candidate Nikki Haley is set to drop out of the race for president after suffering heavy Super Tuesday losses to Donald Trump.
Former South Carolina Governor Haley looks set to end her bid for The White House after she was obliterated in the Republican contests overnight.
AFPFormer South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is to drop out of the race for president after suffering a series of heavy losses to Donald Trump[/caption]
GettyTrump stormed to victory in more than a dozen states on Super Tuesday[/caption]
Haley, who was the US ambassador to the United Nations during Trump’s presidency, has suffered a slew of embarrassing losses and struggled to pick up delegates after announcing her candidacy in February 2023.
Sources told the Wall Street Journal that she intends to suspend her campaign.
She will be giving an address in Charleston at 10 am EST today.
Haley is not going to endorse anyone yet, according to sources familiar with her plans.
She is expected to lobby Trump, tasking him with trying to win the support of Republican voters and independents who opted to back her during the campaign.
Haley is set to warn voters about the dangers of an isolationist foreign policy.
She only won two primary contests during her ill-fated run for the nomination.
She was defeated by Trump by almost 20 points in her home state of South Carolina.
But Haley handed Trump his first loss in Sunday’s Washington DC contest, which prompted the tycoon to quip back that she was the queen of the so-called swamp.
Haley picked up 19 delegates following her DC success and her team noted that it was the first time a woman had won a Republican primary.
She only won one state on Super Tuesday – Vermont – by around four percentage points.
During the race for the nomination, Trump’s lead seemed to surge in the polls the more times he was indicted.
He boasted a huge lead in both the state and national polls heading into Super Tuesday, where hundreds of delegates would be dished out.
But Haley tried to differentiate herself from the one-term president, appealing to independent voters and anti-Trump, traditional GOP voters.
She had ramped up her attacks on Trump, saying that he should’ve stopped the January 6 2021 insurrection.
Haley had repeatedly warned about the dangers of a potential second Trump term.
She made headlines for calling for mental competency tests for politicians and stood by her Bush-era conservative views.
Haley is set to suspend her campaign just hours after suffering a series of crushing defeats on Super Tuesday.
Trump stormed to victory in 14 states, scoring big wins in the delegate-rich states of California and Texas.
STORMED TO VICTORY
Trump was closing in on 1,000 delegates and was around 200 away from being officially named the GOP’s presumptive 2024 nominee.
The magic number to win the nomination was an estimated 1,215 delegates.
Trump is destined to be coronated at the Republican Party’s National Convention which will take place in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, this summer.
Trump scored big victories in a slew of states, including Alaska, Colorado, Maine, Oklahoma, Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Minnesota, North Carolina, Massachusetts, Alabama, Arkansas, California, and Utah.
Trump’s diehard fanbase accused Haley of hiding as she watched the Super Tuesday results from home.
Haley’s team was vague on her plans in a statement issued to the press after polls had closed.
“We’re honored to have received the support of millions of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests,” her team wrote.
“Unity is not achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re united.’
“Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump.
“That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.”
Haley has previously said she would stay in the race as long as she was competitive.
She had resisted calls from top Republicans who called for her to drop out of the race.
On Monday, she released an ad that blamed Trump for a series of Republican losses over recent years.
TRUMP’S SWIPES AT BIDEN
During the weekend, she raised doubts about whether she would endorse Trump if he were to become the party’s presidential nominee.
Prospective nominations were mandated by the Republican National Committee to sign a pledge saying they would back the eventual nomination.
But, the RNC is set to see a huge overhaul at the top with Ronna McDaniel’s resignation coming into force on March 8.
Haley told NBC’s Meet the Press that today’s RNC is not the same as what it was.
Meanwhile, the brash tycoon lapped up his success in front of his adoring supporters in Mar-a-Lago, Florida.
Trump said his victory following the mammoth day of voting was conclusive.
And, he used the address to take further swipes at Joe Biden.
America is hurtling down the track to its first presidential rematch since 1956.
Biden is storming to the Democratic Party’s nomination but suffered a shock defeat in American Samoa.
Biden didn’t address the loss but said voters are gearing up to fight back against Trump in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
“Every generation of Americans will face a moment when it has to defend democracy. This is our fight,” he said.
Trump said the US has taken a beating during Biden’s term and claimed the world is laughing at America.
Trump, who is wrapped up in four criminal indictments, said he would bring unity should he be elected in November.
Average polls, compiled by Real Clear Politics, put Trump two points ahead when it comes to the national vote.
Trump lost the popular vote in 2020 by more than four percentage points.
Trump boasts leads in the battleground states of Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada.
The Republican was defeated in all of the states except North Carolina in 2020.
Biden’s lead in Pennsylvania is less than one percentage point, per the surveys.
What is the Electoral College?
And why swing states are important.
The Electoral College is the body of 538 electors divided among the states who select the next president of the United States
To become president, a candidate must win a majority of 270 electoral votes
Every state is assigned one elector for each of its representatives in the House, plus an additional two reflecting the state’s senators
In most cases, a presidential candidate will be awarded all the electors in a state if they win the state’s popular vote. Electors who vote against the state’s popular vote winner are called faithless electors
Many states will be virtual shoe-ins for the Democratic candidate (such as New York and California) or the Republican candidate (such as Texas and Missouri), while a minority are genuinely up for grabs by either candidate
These states, known as purple or swing states, are the main targets for presidential candidates
The parties’ candidates are chosen in primary elections throughout the first half of the election year, including Super Tuesday, and officially nominated at party conventions in the summer
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