Nikki Haley will finally surrender to Donald Trump in a speech on Wednesday morning after the ex-president delivered a series of devastating blows to her failing campaign on Super Tuesday.
Haley, 52, will speak in her home state of South Carolina around 10am local time, reports The Wall Street Journal. The development guarantees a rematch between Biden and Trump in November.
In her speech, Haley will not endorse Trump but will encourage him to ‘earn the support of Republican and independent voters who backed her,’ according to the report, sourced to people familiar with her plans.
That is in keeping with her rhetoric in recent days, where she has bristled at pressure to get out of the race, and tried to put the onus back on Trump himself to unify the party.
Her departure sets up the slugfest between President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 77, that many voters say in opinion polls they do not want, even as both men scored decisive electoral wins in their parties.
Are we really in this country going to have two 80 year olds running for president? It is a fact that when you are their age, you have mental decline,’ she told CBS news days ago – applying the label equally to her party’s leader.
On Tuesday, Haley told Fox & Friends, ‘I haven’t heard him pledge to me that he would support me if I won, so I don’t know why I have to go and pledge to him that I would support him.’
Nikki Haley released a statement Tuesday about ‘deep concerns’ voters have about rival Donald Trump after the former president captured a dozen states and counting on his march to the likely GOP nomination
Trump doesn’t need to reach out to Haley’s supporters to prevail in the primary. But he will need them in what is expected to be a close race against Biden. In states with open or semi-open primaries, Haley was attracting supports from independents and a sliver of Democrats, as well as a faction of ‘never Trump’ Republicans.
Trump has built a narrow lead over Biden in the popular vote and in key battleground states, but at the moment Republicans are at a fundraising disadvantage, while Trump continues to face challenges on the legal front.
Haley will also speak Wednesday about conservative values, such as an active foreign policy, as opposed to MAGA isolationism and tighter government spending. Throughout her campaign, the former UN ambassador has continued to call for U.S. engagement with allies and to maintain support for Ukraine amid Russia’s brutal invasion.
That sometimes put her at odds with Trump and her party’s MAGA wing, which has become increasingly skeptical of Ukraine and has cast doubt on ‘blank check’ U.S. funding, even while the candidate stresses getting along with Russia.
Her campaign made history as she became the first Republican woman to win two primaries, in Vermont and the District of Columbia, thus preventing a total blowout.
But the delegate situation she faced Wednesday morning was extremely bleak, facing a nationwide rout and the need to win remaining contests by a nearly impossible margin even while badly trailing in polls.
Super Tuesday’s results gave Haley’s campaign no viable path to the nomination
The former South Carolina governor did not make a public appearance on Tuesday and stayed hunkered down with her campaign staff in her home state as the dire results from across the country rolled in.
In a vague statement released late Tuesday evening, she did not address her future in the race and only said a ‘large block of voters’ had ‘deep concerns’ about the Republican frontrunner, who is almost certainly going to face President Joe Biden in a rematch in November.
While Haley went underground and left supporters guessing about her next move, Trump delivered a victory speech at Mar-a-Lago without mentioning her name and instead focusing on his likely 2024 opponent.
She won just one state, Vermont, and then issued the printed statement through her campaign spokeswoman.
‘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,’ said spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas.
Then she addressed ‘unity,’ which is something Trump has repeatedly called for in a party that has come increasingly under his grip.
Donald Trump addresses supporters at Mar-a-Lago where he referenced a ‘big win’
‘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,’ Perez-Cubas added.
By 1am Eastern Time, Trump had won twelve states with ease. Then by 3am, his victory in the Alaska caucuses was confirmed, Utah fell too an hour later.
‘They call it Super Tuesday for a reason – this is a big win. And they tell me, the pundits, there has never been anything so conclusive,’ Trump said.
Haley was hunkered down in her home state of South Carolina while millions of Americans went to the polls. That alone sent a powerful signal about the state of the race.
Her campaign sent out no information on any kind of plans to address supporters while the results came in, even as Trump, who has declared the race all but over, invited hundreds of supporters to his Mar-a-Lago private Florida club.
Trump seized big delegate hauls out of California and Texas – California’s was winner-take-all – and was on track to seize his party’s nomination as soon as next week even if Haley stayed in.
The Virginia loss deprived Haley of one of the 15 states up for grabs on Tuesday where she had something approaching a shot.
Supporters of former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump cheer as he is declared the winner in the state of Virginia during a “Victory Party” for the Super Tuesday election primaries in Quincy, Massachusetts
While Haley went underground and left supporters guessing about her next move, Trump delivered a victory speech at Mar-a-Lago without mentioning her name
Eric Trump (left) and his wife Lara arrive in the Mar-a-Lago ballroom to watch the Republican frontrunner’s speech
Trump addresses the crowd at his Palm Beach club at a more subdued victory party
And exit poll information described an electorate that could be open to a candidate like Haley: 72 per cent suburban, majority college educated, and less committed to ‘MAGA’ than neighboring North Carolina.
The only information on her whereabouts came from a public comment by Haley in a TV interview that she would be in her home state on Super Tuesday.
A source put out vague information indicating she laid low in Charleston and watched returns with staff, who sources described as happy warriors in a jubilant mood.
By contrast, before her defeat in her home state of South Carolina, the candidate had telegraphed that she would campaign in Michigan and on to Super Tuesday.
Leading up to Tuesday night, she has said only that she would remain in the race as long as she was ‘competitive.’
Her campaign did not announce any future campaign stops for after Tuesday, even though Trump was not expected to nail down the requisite delegates immediately.
Nor did her campaign organize any kind of a call to try to describe a way forward for the media members covering the lopsided two-person race.
Her campaign’s only public presence Tuesday as millions of Americans went to the polls was a new web and a TV appearance by the candidate where Haley pushed back on urgings that she ‘get out’ of the race for the White House while facing a deluge of potential losses on Super Tuesday.
Haley faced pointed questions about her future when she would get out of the race during a Super Tuesday appearance on Fox & Friends.
‘As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I’m not ready to get out yet,’ she said as people began voting in 15 states across the country with hundreds of delegates at stake.
‘I’m still sitting there fighting for the people that want a voice, so they deserve that,’ she added.
Haley pushed back when asked about backing away from her debate stage pledge to get behind the eventual nominee, something she has dismissed as her criticisms of Trump have grown increasingly pronounced.
‘If you don’t have a good night, are you going to drop out, and when will you realize it’s time to unify? Will you unify and support Donald Trump if he does win tonight?’ asked Fox & Friends cohost Ainsley Earhardt.
‘If I were to get out of the race, that would still be the longest presidential general election in the history. I don’t know why everybody is so adamant that they have to follow Trump’s lead to get me out of this race,’ Haley shot back. ‘All of these people deserve to vote … It’s as pro-American as it gets.’
She said of Trump, who she said was responsible for a series of GOP losses: ‘I haven’t heard him pledge to me that he would support me if I won. So I don’t know why I have to pledge to him that I would support him if I won.
Haley’s campaign released a new digital ad Monday where the candidate says Trump had his ‘fingerprints’ on a series of losses. It begins with a clip of Trump telling supporters they would get ‘bored with winning’ they would do it so much.
Haley has no public schedule of events that would establish her longer-term plans to continue the fight.
Trump has announced plans to campaign in Georgia next week.
‘When will you realize it’s time to unify?’ asked Fox host Ainsley Earhardt, prompting pushback from Haley
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump has announced plans to campaign in Georgia next week
A voter fills out his ballot at the Fairfax County Government Center polling place in Fairfax, Virginia, USA, 05 March 2024. The ‘Super Tuesday’ voters in 15 states and territories will cast their ballots for presidential candidates in the 2024 United States
Trump is not expected to mathematically capture the nomination today.
Haley did announce a Louisiana leadership team, including several former members of Congress, on Monday, but no trip to the Pelican State.
Asked on CNN Monday if she could name states she could win and how many she could point to in order to justify staying in, Haley avoided a direct answer.
‘Well, we’ve said as long as we’re competitive, we have been in 10 states just in the past week. I just finished a rally here in Houston, Texas, we have well over 1,000 people show up,’ she said.