Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced on Wednesday that she is dropping out of the Republican presidential race.
She encouraged former President Donald Trump to work to gain the support of voters who previously supported her.
With Haley’s exit, Trump is now the sole candidate in the Republican presidential race.
“The time has now come to suspend my campaign. I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets,” Haley said during remarks in Charleston, South Carolina, following a series of losses in Grand Old Party nominating contests on Super Tuesday.
Although Haley congratulated Trump in her announcement, she did not officially endorse him.
“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,” she said.
Sources close to Haley indicated to CNN before her speech that she may still endorse Trump before the general election.
Haley, the former US ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, criticized the former President’s isolationist foreign policy views in her speech by stating, “America’s retreat is causing chaos in our world.”
“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.
Haley was the final major candidate to be defeated by Trump in the GOP primary, which he dominated from beginning to end. Trump won 14 out of 15 GOP contests on Tuesday, despite skipping debates and traveling less than his opponents.
Haley had planned to stay in the race until Super Tuesday and had started criticizing Trump’s mental fitness, comparing him to President Joe Biden as “grumpy old men.”
As the race transitioned to a national level, with most delegates being awarded by March 12, Haley had little chance of keeping up with Trump. Despite winning primaries in Vermont and the District of Columbia, she did not gain enough delegates to make a significant impact.
