New Delhi: The sole contender to Donald Trump for the Republican Party presidential nomination, Nikki Haley, has bowed out of the race after losing 14 out of the 15 primaries on ‘Super Tuesday’.
The stage is now set for a rematch in November between Trump and US President Joe Biden.
Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and the former US representative to the United Nations appointed by Trump, was able to win only the state of Vermont, Tuesday.
Overall, Haley won two – Vermont and Washington DC – while Trump swept the rest as Republicans let their presidential preference known.
Victorious candidates are being awarded delegates, of which they need a certain number to get their party’s official nod to run for president.
After Tuesday, Trump’s total delegate count stood at 1,031, just shy of the 1,215 required to clinch the Republican nomination. Haley’s count was 89.
Though Haley suspended her campaign Wednesday, she refused to endorse Trump. Throughout her campaign, Haley emphasised the Republican party was not united behind the former president, who faces almost 91 felony charges across four criminal cases in the US.
During her speech suspending her campaign Haley said, “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 was the first serious contender against Trump in the Republican primaries, announcing her candidacy in February 2023, three months after the former president launched his bid. Her campaign has outlasted early contenders such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former vice president Mike Pence.
Haley is also the first Republican woman candidate to win a primary.
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Haley gets college graduates, suburban votes
Born to Sikh immigrant parents in South Carolina, Haley sought out votes of moderate Republicans and college-educated party supporters, as reported by the Associated Press.
Her campaign has been able to highlight certain sets of Republican voters who may not be too keen on a return to a Trump presidency.
Despite defeating her in Virginia by a margin of 28 percentage points, Trump lost the suburban and college-going vote to Haley in the state Tuesday, reported The New York Times.
The precinct-level data across the states of Virginia, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Minnesota show that Trump held commanding leads across rural areas. However, in Virginia, Haley carried the suburban neighbourhoods by 1.8 percentage points and the urban areas by 4 percentage points, according to NYT.
She carried areas with more college graduates by 13 percentage points in Virginia, and higher-income neighbourhoods by 11 percentage points. In North Carolina and Minnesota, Trump beat Haley across all demographics, albeit with smaller margins in the suburban and urban areas, higher-income areas and areas with more college graduates.
On Wednesday, Biden, aiming to win over some of these Republican votes, said in a statement, “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.”
He added: “I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.”
Haley’s campaign and Biden’s call for suburban voters to choose him over Trump, highlight the potential weakness of the Trump candidacy.
Biden, with a current delegate count of 1,527, is just a little over 400 shy of sealing the Democratic party nomination.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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