Thirteen months after she launched her 2024 Republican presidential campaign in Charleston, South Carolina, Nikki Haley is ending her White House bid, multiple sources confirmed to Fox News Digital.
The former two-term South Carolina governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in former President Donald Trump’s administration is expected to say Wednesday morning that she is suspending her campaign for the GOP nomination, but she is not immediately expected to endorse Trump.
Haley is scheduled to speak Wednesday at 10 a.m. ET from Charleston, where she is expected to say that her candidacy forced an important conversation and gave people an alternative to Trump.
The former president on Tuesday swept 14 of the 15 states from coast to coast that held Republican presidential primaries and caucuses on Super Tuesday, moving Trump much closer to locking up the GOP nomination and into a general election rematch with President Biden.
TRUMP, BIDEN, NEAR SWEEPS ON SUPER TUESDAY MOVE THEM MUCH CLOSER TO GENERAL ELECTION REMATCH
Haley, who for a month had said she would stay in the race at least through Super Tuesday, held no public event or speech on Tuesday night – as she watched election results in private with her campaign team – and remained mum on any plans going forward.
Trump’s near sweep of the Super Tuesday states – Haley narrowly edged the former president in Vermont – turned up the volume on calls by fellow Republicans for Haley to end her White House bid.
“I do think it is time for her to step aside and let the party rally fully around Donald Trump so that he can take Joe Biden on and beat him in November,” Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders – a former Trump White House press secretary who has endorsed the former president – said in an interview on Fox News “America Reports” Tuesday afternoon.
But in a “Fox and Friends” interview on Tuesday morning, as the polls opened in the Super Tuesday contests, Haley didn’t sound like a candidate dropping out.
“As much as everybody wants to go and push me out, I’m not ready to get out yet. I’m still sitting there fighting for the people that want a voice,” Haley emphasized.
In a statement Tuesday night, the Haley campaign said “we’re honored to have received the support of millions of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests.”
And pointing to a bunch of Super Tuesday states where Haley captured anywhere from a quarter to a third of the vote in the GOP contests, the campaign argued that “today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.”
Trump made no mention of Haley in his 20-minute-long victory speech Tuesday night in front of supporters at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
And his campaign didn’t immediately comment or put out any statement after the news about Haley dropping out broke early Wednesday morning.
But Taylor Budowich, who steers the Trump-aligned super PAC Make America Great Again Inc., in a statement Wednesday morning congratulated the former president “for vanquishing his opponents in record time. The same movement that powered President Trump to a primary victory will power him to a general election victory.”
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While sources indicated that Haley wasn’t expected to immediately endorse Trump, top Haley surrogate Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina told Fox News on Wednesday morning that “if not today, she will” endorse the former president.
Norman, who endorsed Haley a year ago, added in a “Fox and Friends” interview that “at the end of the day, she will come on board.”
The congressman added that he will reach out and call Trump in the coming hours.
In a Republican presidential field that topped a dozen candidates last summer, Haley was the final remaining rival to Trump, who for months has been the commanding frontrunner in the GOP race as he makes his third straight White House bid.
Haley – who in 2021 and 2022 made numerous trips to Iowa and New Hampshire, the two lead-off states in the Republican presidential nominating calendar – formally launched her 2024 campaign in February of last year.
Haley polled in the single digits for much of last year and faced an uphill climb to win the nomination. But courtesy of well-regarded performances in the late summer and autumn in the first three GOP primary debates, Haley grabbed momentum and saw her poll numbers soar.
That surge increased in December, as Haley caught up with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the latest Iowa polls and in national surveys, for a distant second place behind Trump.
FOX EXCLUSIVE: TRUMP REACTS TO SUPER TUESDAY VICTORIES
And Haley zoomed to second place and narrowed the gap with Trump in New Hampshire, thanks in part to a crucial endorsement from Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
Trump ended up winning the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses by 30 points over DeSantis, with Haley finishing slightly behind the Florida governor in third place.
DeSantis, who was a distant third and mired in the single digits in the public opinion polls in New Hampshire, dropped out of the race two days before the primary, turning the GOP nomination battle into a two-candidate race between Haley and Trump.
Haley, thanks to strong support from independents, won 43% of the vote in New Hampshire, finishing 11 points behind Trump.
After Trump scored landslides in the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Islands GOP caucuses in early February, the race moved to Haley’s home state of South Carolina.
While Haley campaigned relentlessly in her home state and Trump made only a handful of stops, the former president enjoyed the backing of South Carolina’s governor, both senators, and scores of state lawmakers and officials.
But Haley remained defiant amid increasing calls by fellow Republicans for her to drop out of the race.
“I refuse to quit. South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,” Haley emphasized in a major speech a couple of days ahead of her home state primary.
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And she emphasized that “I have no fear of Trump’s retribution.”
On the campaign trail days ahead of the South Carolina primary, Haley told her supporters, “I will take the bruises. I will take the cuts. This is going to be messy and I’ll take the hurt, because I believe nothing good comes easy. Sometimes we have to feel pain to appreciate the blessing.”
Haley has also turned up the volume in her verbal attacks on Trump, from his legal entanglements to his controversial comments on NATO and the death of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, as well as his mocking of her husband, who is overseas on a military tour of duty.
And she continued to spotlight both the 77-year-old Trump and 81-year-old President’s Biden’s verbal miscues as she repeatedly questioned their mental and physical durability and argued that it was time for a new generation to steer the country.
Trump ended up topping Haley by 20 points in South Carolina, and he followed that up with an even bigger win three days later in Michigan’s Republican presidential primary.
CHECK OUT THE LATEST REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY DELEGATE COUNT HERE
But Haley kept going, as she campaigned across the country in the 15 states from coast to coast that held Super Tuesday GOP nominating contests on March 5.
Trump rolled into Super Tuesday with plenty of momentum, after sweeping the Michigan’s GOP’s party convention, and winning large victories in the Missouri, Idaho, and North Dakota caucuses.
“We’ve been launching like a rocket to the Republican nomination,” Trump touted Saturday night at a rally in Richmond, Virginia, as he pointed to his ballot box victories in Michigan, Missouri and Idaho.
But Haley, who repeatedly highlighted that she would remain in the GOP nomination race at least through Super Tuesday despite the extremely long odds she faces, on Sunday enjoyed victory for the first time in the 2024 race.
Haley topped Trump by roughly 30 points in Washington D.C.’s Republican primary this past weekend. She captured 19 delegates and made history as the first woman to win a GOP presidential primary or caucus.
Haley, who garnered strong support in the GOP primaries from independents and whose fundraising remained formidable, said she was staying in the race as an option for voters dissatisfied with a likely Biden-Trump rematch.
Haley reiterated in an interview on Saturday with Fox News’ Bill Melugin that “we’re going to go as long as we’re competitive,” but she did not specifically define what competitive means.
Fox News contributor Karl Rove, the veteran GOP strategist and political mastermind behind former President George W. Bush’s two presidential election victories, emphasized that Super Tuesday was “a strong night for Donald Trump.”
But pointing to Haley’s winning of a quarter to a third of the vote in a bunch of the Super Tuesday states, Rove said “the high command at Team Trump should be concerned about unifying the Republican Party… there’s still some work to be done.”
And longtime Republican strategist David Kochel noted that the Trump and Biden campaigns “are going to be fighting over these Nikki Haley voters.”
Biden, who faces nominal challenges from Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota and best-selling author and spiritual adviser Marianne Williamson, easily romped in the Democrat contests on Super Tuesday.
The president was on course to win nearly all the 1,420 Democratic delegates up for grabs on Tuesday and move much closer to the 1,968 needed to lock up renomination.
But Biden did suffer a setback, as the Fox News Decision Desk projected he would lose the Democratic caucus in American Samoa to extreme long-shot candidate and entrepreneur Jason Palmer.
Palmer was expected to win 4 delegates, to the president’s two on the Pacific Ocean island territory. It was Biden’s first defeat in the 2024 Democratic nominating calendar.
More troubling for Biden was the continued discontent at the ballot box over his support for Israel in its war with Hamas.
A week after 13% of Democratic primary voters in Michigan cast ballots for “uncommitted” in protest of the president’s backing of Israel, nearly 20% voted “uncommitted” in Minnesota’s primary.
Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Sally Persons contributed to this report
