Former US Ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley has suspended her presidential campaign on Wednesday, leaving Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination.
Haley’s decision end her campaign comes a day after Super Tuesday, when Trump defeated her in 14 of the 15 Republican nominating contests.
Haley lasted longer than any other Republican challenger to Trump but never posed a serious threat to the former president, whose iron grip on the party’s base remains firm despite his multiple criminal indictments.
The rematch between Trump, 77, and Biden, 81 — the first repeat US presidential contest since 1956 — is one that few Americans want.
The election promises to be deeply divisive in a country already riven by political polarization. Biden has cast Trump as an existential danger to democratic principles, while Trump has sought to re-litigate his false claims that he won in 2020.
Haley, 52, had drawn support from deep-pocketed donors intent on stopping Trump from winning a third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, particularly after she notched a series of strong performances at debates that Trump opted to skip.
Haley, a former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, was Trump’s first significant rival when she jumped into the race in February 2023.
She spent the final phase of her campaign aggressively warning Republicans against embracing Trump, whom she argued was too consumed by chaos and personal grievance to defeat President Joe Biden in the general election.
