CNN —
Since the night of the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley has faced one constant question: when would she drop out?
It came from GOP party leaders, who called on her to suspend her campaign as former President Donald Trump racked up more wins, and from political observers who assumed she would rather leave the race than face a potentially embarrassing defeat in her home state of South Carolina.
But for weeks, Haley made clear publicly and privately that the make-or-break point of her campaign would come on Super Tuesday, when GOP primary voters in more than a dozen states, including delegate rich California and Texas, weighed in.
When they did, the answer was crystal clear: Trump won nearly every contest that night, save for Vermont, where his remaining primary rival eked out a victory.
“I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard,” Haley said hours later as she suspended her campaign Wednesday morning. “I have done that. I have no regrets.”
Haley had been the first of Trump’s challengers to launch her campaign, and became the last to suspend it. The nearly 13 months of campaigning had come to an end, with Haley becoming the first woman to win a GOP primary contest – but also with Trump still sailing toward his third straight presidential nomination in a row.
For now, Haley faces a new question: will she endorse Trump? On Wednesday, she did not, instead calling on the former president to practice the politics of addition and “earn” the vote of those who didn’t back him. Her goal is to open up a conversation about issues within the Republican Party, and to push the party towards unity.
In the days leading up to her decision to suspend her bid, her campaign received a significant amount of feedback on the subject of endorsing Trump or not, sources familiar with recent discussions told CNN.
People who are close with 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 because that would give Haley the freedom to be critical of Trump and build her own movement. One of those voices told CNN that they believed Haley’s remarks on Wednesday were too forgiving of Trump, particularly when she expressed her “hope” that Trump will be successful in earning the vote of her supporters.
The two separate camps have shared those opinions with Haley and her campaign in recent days and weeks, sources said.
Haley herself has recently said that she is not focused on endorsing anyone because she is focused on winning herself. She has also pointed to her support, which reached 30-40% in a handful of states, as a sign of Trump’s weakness. According to CNN exit polls in New Hampshire, South Carolina, Virginia, North Carolina and California, only 19% of Haley supporters said they would be satisfied with Trump as the nominee; 79% said they would be dissatisfied.
Nikki Haley poses for a portrait at the State House in Columbia, South Carolina, in 2016. Travis Dove/The New York Times/Redux Haley with her family: husband Michael, son Nalin and daughter Rena. She said on Twitter that this was her first Christmas card when she announced she would be running for the South Carolina state legislature. Nikki Haley/Twitter Haley celebrates with her family after being elected governor of South Carolina in November 2010. She is the first woman and the first person of an ethnic minority to become governor of the state. Gerry Melendez/The State via AP Haley talks to reporters in the US Capitol in December 2010. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Haley and her family walk back into the South Carolina State House after her inauguration in 2011. Tim Dominick/The State/MCT via Getty Images Haley campaigns for presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Haley waves to the crowd during the Conservative Political Action Conference in 2013. Alex Wong/Getty Images Haley hugs her husband after his Army National Guard unit returned in 2013. Michael Haley was deployed in Afghanistan for a year. He was part of an agricultural team that trained Afghan farmers how to turn their poppy crops into food crops. Rainier Ehrhardt/AP Haley and her husband pose for a photo with Sikh head priest Jaswinder Singh, right, and other officials at the Golden Temple in Amritsar, India, in 2014. Haley was raised in the religion of Sikh but converted to Christianity in her 20s. Narinder Nanu/AFP/Getty Images Haley talks with Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal during a White House event for the National Governors Association in 2015. Haley and Jindal are the only two Indian-Americans to serve as governors. Win McNamee/Getty Images In June 2015, Haley moves from one television interview to another near the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was days after the deadly shooting of nine church members. In the aftermath, Haley called for the Confederate battle flag to be removed from the grounds of the South Carolina State House in Columbia. The shooter, Dylann Roof, had been repeatedly photographed with the flag. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Haley signs a bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds. Sean Rayford/Getty Images Shortly after his election, Trump tapped Haley to be US ambassador to the United Nations. Here, Haley testifies during her confirmation hearing in January 2017. Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images Vice President Mike Pence swears in Haley after her confirmation in January 2017. Win McNamee/Getty Images Haley holds up photos of victims of a Syrian chemical attack during a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in April 2017. Drew Angerer/Getty Images Haley sits beside Trump as he hosts UN Security Council ambassadors in 2017. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images Haley and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson meet in New York with her British counterpart, Matthew Rycroft, and British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson in April 2017. Bryan R. Smith/AFP/Getty Images During a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in May 2017, Haley tours a supermarket run by the Norwegian Refugee Council and partly funded by the United States. Raad Adayleh/AFP/Getty Images Haley prays at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in June 2017. Gali Tibbon/AFP/Getty Images Haley and Trump wait for a meeting on United Nations reform in September 2017. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images Haley votes during a UN Security Council meeting in June 2018. A draft resolution, submitted by Kuwait, condemned Israeli violence and called for the “protection of the Palestinian people” in Gaza and the West Bank. The United States vetoed the resolution. Atilgan Ozdil/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images Trump speaks with Haley while chairing a UN Security Council meeting in September 2018. Spencer Platt/Getty Images Trump thanks Haley for her work as UN ambassador as they announce her resignation in the Oval Office in October 2018. Evan Vucci/AP Haley places her hand over her heart during her speech at the 2020 Republican National Convention. Kevin Lamarque/Reuters Haley campaigns with Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc at a diner in Londonderry, New Hampshire, in September 2022. Haley joined several Senate candidates on the campaign trail during the 2022 midterm election season. Brian Snyder/Reuters Haley speaks in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 2023, a day after announcing her presidential run. She touted her record in government and laid out her vision for what she described as a “strong America, full of opportunity that lifts up everyone, not just a select few.” Jonathan Ernst/Reuters Haley participates in a CNN town hall event moderated by Jake Tapper in Des Moines, Iowa, in June 2023. Will Lanzoni/CNN Haley kisses her son Nalin at the Iowa State Fair Grounds in August 2023. Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post/Getty Images Haley visits a farm during a campaign stop in Grand Mound, Iowa, in September 2023. Rachel Mummey/The New York Times/Redux Haley poses for photos after a Republican presidential debate in Miami in November 2023. Jonathan Newton/The Washington Post/Getty Images Haley speaks to supporters at her election night watch party in Concord, New Hampshire, in January 2024. She had just lost the primary to Trump. Haiyun Jiang/Bloomberg/Getty Images Haley takes the stage at her election night watch party in Charleston, South Carolina, in February 2024. Haley lost the primary to Trump but vowed to stay in the race. Nicole Craine/The New York Times/Redux Haley walks off stage after announcing that she would be suspending her presidential campaign in March 2024. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images In pictures: Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley Prev Next
Kimberly Rice, a former New Hampshire representative who served as a co-chair for Haley’s campaign in the Granite State, said she was one of the Haley voters Trump would have to work to win over. She referenced the former president’s statement that Haley’s donors would be “barred permanently” from MAGA world, a move she said she and others took seriously and personally.
“It’s one thing to attack a fellow candidate especially on policy issues,” she said. “But when you go for the jugular and you go for personal issues, and then you attack the supporters like that, I think you have to swallow a little humble pie, and try to work on bringing them back in.”
Unmet goals
Top officials on Haley’s campaign told major donors in recent weeks that Super Tuesday would dictate whether or not Haley stayed in the race, according to two sources familiar with the discussions.
They made a persuasive case in these private conversations. Staying in the race through Super Tuesday would give Haley’s team more data about the GOP electorate, the sources said. Haley’s team wanted that data before making the call to suspend her campaign, instead of pulling the plug after only a few states had voted.
The benchmark for success was 40% of the vote, building on her previous performances in the early states. Haley ultimately hit that target in just two of the states that voted Tuesday, Utah and Vermont.
As a result, most donors are not surprised by Haley’s decision to drop out Wednesday, particularly because they didn’t expect the outcome in the Super Tuesday states to be better than Haley’s previous performances.
“She made the right decision and she ran a good race,” said one of the donors. “It was an impressive and smart approach to challenging Trump.”
Haley herself engaged in outreach to some top donors very late Tuesday night, one source said. Members of Haley’s team also reached out to top donors to say she was dropping out, sources explained. It is too early to tell where the donors go from here, sources said.
As Haley rose in the polls last fall, she gained the backing of several wealthy donors eager to boost a promising alternative to Trump. That support was both a benefit and a burden as her Republican opponents, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, argued that she was beholden to her donors. Haley countered her rivals were jealous they weren’t getting that support.
Americans for Prosperity, the political network associated with billionaire Charles Koch, endorsed Haley last November and aided her until the day after the South Carolina primary, when the group said it would stop spending money on her.
‘Won’t just go away’
In the weeks between the January 23 New Hampshire primary and the February 24 South Carolina primary – when questions rose about how long her campaign would last – Haley began investing time and money in Super Tuesday states to help quell rumors she might drop out.
“I’m not going anywhere,” Haley told supporters at an event in Costa Mesa, California, in early February. “I’m willing to take the bruises. I’m willing to do the fight and go through the pain. All I’m asking is that you stand there with me.”
Haley held more than a dozen events in 10 Super Tuesday states, including Texas, Massachusetts and Virginia.
Overall, Haley’s network spent about $82 million on ads, with about $17.9 million coming from her campaign, and $64.4 million from SFA Fund, the lead super PAC supporting her bid. In addition, Americans For Prosperity Action, the Koch-aligned super PAC backing Haley, spent about $8 million on ads supporting her.
But that spending shifted in her final week of the race. Haley did not make new investments in television advertising, a decision that was far from unanimous among some of her top supporters and donors who believed she could have made a stronger run against Trump in suburban areas of North Carolina, Virginia, Texas and beyond.
It is unclear how much money Haley will close her candidacy with, but the candidate who has reminded supporters at virtually every campaign stop that she is an accountant by trade was intently focused on not going into debt or spending more than her chances warranted, an adviser said. She can also reserve any of her finances for future political endeavors, should she have a future in the Trump-controlled Republican Party.
Haley “won’t just go away,” said Katon Dawson, a longtime Haley ally and former chair of the South Carolina Republican Party.
“This is not the last you’ve seen of Nikki Haley,” he said. “She will know who her friends are and, I promise, remember who was against her efforts in this endeavor.”
CNN’s Ebony Davis, David Wright and Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.
Source: edition.cnn.com
