Nikki Haley suspended her campaign Wednesday morning after significant losses on Super Tuesday.
Haley gained 89 delegates, to Trump’s 995, during Tuesday’s primary. Haley only won one state, among the 15 that held primaries that day, leading Trump in Vermont by four points.
She rang in her first victory this past week, winning all 19 delegates in the District of Columbia’s primary. Haley made history as the first woman Republican candidate to do so.
In a speech in Charleston, South Carolina, Haley announced she was suspending her campaign but refused to endorse Trump instead beckoning for him to earn the support of her base.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and I hope he does that,” Haley said in her speech. “At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.”
Haley said she doesn’t have any regrets about her campaign, having drawn attention to her causes and given a formidable challenge to Trump.
“I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard,” Haley said in her speech. “I have done that. I have no regrets. And although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.”
Haley ended her campaign on a note of unity, calling for Americans to “bind together.”
“As important, while we stand strong for the cause of freedom, we must bind together as Americans,” Haley said. “We must turn away from the darkness of hatred and division.”
In a statement Wednesday, President Joe Biden congratulated Haley for her run.
“It takes a lot of courage to run for President — that’s especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump,” Biden said. “Nikki Haley was willing to speak the truth about Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin.”
Trump struck a different tone before Haley announced her suspension officially, but media reports hours before her speech in South Carolina confirmed she would be leaving the race. “Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record-setting fashion, despite the fact that Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to vote in Vermont, and various other Republican Primaries,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social. “At this point, I hope she stays in the “race” and fights it out until the end!”