Indian-American politician Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign Wednesday after being 'trounced' in 15 states across the United States on Super Tuesday but stopped short of endorsing her only rival and former president Donald Trump, who is all set to be the Republican party's presumptive nominee in the November elections.
After Super Tuesday's election results, Trump, 77, had established a commanding lead in the delegate count over his only Republican opponent, 52-year-old Haley, who denied him a full sweep by winning Vermont.
"The time has now come to suspend my campaign," she said on Wednesday in South Carolina.
"I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets," she added. "Although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in."
As Haley suspended her campaign Wednesday morning, Trump posted on social media that the former South Carolina governor got 'trounced' on Super Tuesday and invited her supporters to join his political movement.
'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. Much of her money came from Radical Left Democrats, as did many of her voters, almost 50%, according to the polls,' Trump posted.
Haley congratulated her rival and former boss Trump during her announcement ending her presidential campaign but stopped short of endorsing him.
"In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America's president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us," said Haley, a former US ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration.
While her defeat can be seen as a humiliating one, she sounded a warning signal to the party's leadership in particular Trump as she has consistently garnered a significant portion of Republicans behind her, ranging from 20 percent to 40 percent.
In a closely contested election, this might become a critical factory in deciding the winner of the November presidential elections.
"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. 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 told her supporters.
She quoted Margaret Thatcher on this and said the former British prime minister provided some good advice when she said, "Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind."
In her brief speech lasting about four minutes, in front of a small group of supporters and a battery of reporters, Haley said when she began her campaign about a year ago, it grounded in her love of the country.
"Just last week, my mother, a first-generation immigrant, got to vote for her daughter for president. Only in America. I am filled with gratitude for the outpouring of support we've received from across our great country," she said.
Stopping short of endorsing Trump, she reiterated the issues for which she was running for president.
"Our world is on fire because of America's retreat. Standing by our allies in Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan is a moral imperative. But it's also more than that. If we retreat further, there will be more war, not less," she said.
"I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee," she added.
Trump now has 995 delegates to his kitty as against Haley's 89.
A candidate needs 1215 delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination, a landmark which he is expected to win in the multiple State primaries of March 12.
Haley, a former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador, has not made a final decision as to whether or not she would endorse her ex-boss Trump.
People who are close to Haley have different opinions. Some believe that it would be good for her to back Trump because she would be viewed as a team player. Others ardently oppose her endorsing him.
During her campaign, Haley scripted history by becoming the first woman ever to win a Republican presidential primary.
She is also the first Indian-American to have won either the Democratic or the Republican primaries.
The three other previous Indian American presidential aspirants -- Bobby Jindal in 2016, Kamala Harris in 2020 and Vivek Ramaswamy in 2024 -- had failed to win even one primary.
Of the more than 10 candidates in fray for the 2024 presidential race, Haley is the only candidate to have defeated Trump at the primary stage: in Washington DC and Vermont. She is also the first Indian American to have won any presidential primaries.
Haley, whose parents moved to the United States in the 1960s, was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa.
She has long used her middle name Nikki and adopted the surname Haley after her marriage in 1996.
During the campaign, Trump repeatedly referred to Haley as 'Nimbra' in a rant on his Truth Social account, adding her to the list of foes he has targeted with racist attacks.
Haley's father, Ajit Singh Randhawa, is a professor of biology who got his PhD at the University of British Columbia and later moved to Bamberg, a segregated town where Haley was born, to teach at nearby Voorhees College -- a historically Black university.
Haley recently told Fox News that although she faced racism as a 'Brown girl that grew up in a small rural town in South Carolina', she became 'the first female minority governor in history, who became a UN ambassador and who is now running for president'.
Meanwhile, President Biden on Wednesday made a clear appeal to Haley's supporters in the aftermath of her exit from the race, praising her 'courage' in standing up to Trump.
'Donald Trump made it clear he doesn't want Nikki Haley's supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,' Biden said in a statement moments after Haley suspended her campaign.
Biden praised Haley for her role in her party: '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.'
'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,' Biden added.
