Nikki Haley was a republican candidate for the 2024 presidential election. Prior to last Tuesday, she was competing with former President Trump to become the republican nominee.
The way the delegate vote is structured is Republican delegates in each state vote in primary elections for the candidate they want to see run for president against Democrat Joe Biden. Delegates are members of the Republican political establishment. The Republican candidate who wins 1,215 delegates will earn this right. Before Nikki Haley dropped out of the race, Trump was leading. Trump has 1,066 delegate votes while Haley, on the other hand, only has 94.
Even before Super Tuesday and Haley dropping out, Trump still had a very strong lead, and many questioned why Nikki Haley stayed in the race for so long when it is clear Trump will probably win. Until recently, there was hope for Nikki Haley to win her home state, South Carolina, which she was the governor of for six years. Winning this state was important to Haley because the people in South Carolina had supported her for years, so it was likely she would win the delegate vote. However, Haley surprisingly lost pretty drastically, only winning three out of 50, the remaining 47 votes going to Trump.
Another possibility for Nikki Haley was for Trump to be arrested before the Democratic National Convention. The Democratic National Convention is a convention that officially nominates a candidate for president and vice president for the upcoming election. At this convention, delegates cast their final vote for their preferred candidate. Nikki Haley’s hope was that by the time of this convention, Trump will be in jail, and delegates may change their mind about wanting him to run for president, because it would not be good to have a president who is in jail.
Regardless of these possibilities, Nikki Haley decided to drop out of the race for nomination. However, Haley patently declined to endorse Donald Trump. Typically, a candidate for presidential nomination who drops out will endorse another runner from their party, encouraging all of their supporters to support their former opponent. However, instead of explicitly endorsing Trump, Haley said, “I congratulate (Trump) and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president.”
Although people may interpret this quote differently, Haley not distinctly endorsing Trump made many of his Republican supporters upset. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis criticized Haley, saying that she “signed a pledge” to support the eventual nominee, and she can’t just “take (her) ball and go home.”
So what does Nikki Haley dropping out mean for her supporters? Well, a poll done at Quinnipiac University found that about 50 percent of Haley’s Republican supporters would vote for Donald Trump, and about 37 percent would vote for Joe Biden. The remaining twelve percent will either not vote at all, or are undecided.