Nikki Haley has suspended her bid for the 2024 Republican nomination after losing 14 out of 15 Super Tuesday primaries and caucuses to former President Donald Trump.
Trump, who gained several hundred delegates with sweeping victories in such states as Texas and California, now becomes the GOP’s “presumptive” nominee for the third straight election cycle. Barring unforeseen circumstances, Trump will formally secure his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention on July 15.
But in a sign of intraparty tension that may linger through the fall, Haley pointedly did not endorse Trump in her concession speech, from Charleston, S.C. — despite vowing last summer to back the eventual GOP nominee.
The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news of Haley’s exit, reported that she is withholding her endorsement in order to “encourage” Trump “to earn the support of Republican and independent voters who backed her.”
“Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump,” Haley spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement late Tuesday night. “That is not the unity our party needs for success.”
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