GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley ended her campaign today after a brutal beating in the Super Tuesday primaries that left Donald Trump just 158 votes short of the delegates needed to claim the GOP nomination.
Despite the brave face she wore during the short race, Haley never had a chance. Of the 26 primaries and caucuses thus far that awarded delegates, Haley won just two, and she was awarded delegates only in mostly liberal states where Trump also prevailed.
In her concession speech, Haley denounced socialism and in so many words said the United States must police the world and stand by “allies” such as Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan.
She did not endorse Trump.
Super Tuesday
Yesterday’s results were unsurprising. Of 865 delegates available across 15 states, Trump took 810, giving him 1,057. He entered the contests with 247.
Haley left the race with 92 delegates, up from 43 when voters went to the polls.
Such was Trump’s dominance that detailing what Haley won is easier math. Haley beat Trump in liberal Vermont to win nine delegates. In states she lost, she pulled 40. Colorado and Minnesota Republicans gave her 12 each, while those in Virginia and North Carolina gave her six and nine. Arkansas delivered one.
Trump received the rest and won outright in all but six Super Tuesday states.
Why Haley continued running after repeated defeats is a mystery. Polls showed that she never had a chance to defeat Trump, who now controls the GOP, which suggests that party ruling-class elites and Deep Staters pushed her to keep running in the hope that Trump’s legal difficulties would derail his march to the nomination.
That wasn’t going to happen, and even if Trump would land in jail, it wouldn’t stop him from running for president.
That said, Haley finally recognized that it was time to quit.
“I am filled with the gratitude for the outpouring of support we’ve received from all across our great country, but the time has now come to suspend my campaign,” she said in a concession speech today:
I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard — I have done that. I have no regrets. And although I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.
Our national debt will eventually crush our economy. A smaller federal government is not only necessary for our freedom, it is necessary for our survival.
The road to socialism is the road to ruin for America.
Haley called Congress and the Senate “dysfunctional” and said it is filled with followers, not leaders. She also called for term limits.
Haley came close to calling for global war. The “world is on fire because of America’s retreat,” and “standing by our allies in Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan is a moral imperative.” If the “retreat” continues, “there will be more war, not less.”
Haley also said Americans must “turn away from the darkness of hatred and division.”
The former Palmetto State governor did not endorse Trump, citing late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s admonition not to follow a party line. But conceding that he would be the nominee, she said Trump must “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and I hope he does that.”
Continued Haley:
At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.…
I congratulate him and wish him well. I wish anyone well who would be America’s president. Our country is too precious to let our differences divide us.
It’s Trump vs. Biden
In something of a droll statement that psychologists call projection, President Joe Biden’s campaign said Trump is a wounded candidate.
“The results of last night’s Super Tuesday contests cemented what we have known for some time now: Donald Trump limps into the general election as a wounded, dangerous and unpopular candidate,” a campaign memo said:
The Republican nominee is cash-strapped, beleaguered by a host of external issues, and is running on an extreme agenda that is already proving to be a significant liability for key voting blocs that are critical to the pathway to 270 electoral votes.
This is the same candidate who has released so many illegal aliens into the country that retired FBI agents warn of a terror or military attack.
Hilariously, the memorandum called dementia-addled Biden “laser-focused.” On ice cream, maybe he is.
The latest Real Clear Politics average of general election polls don’t show Trump “limping” anywhere.
He’s 2.2 points ahead of Biden, 47.5-45.5.
Of the last 25 polls, “laser-focused” Biden has prevailed in just four, with two ties. A Harris X poll put Trump ahead by as much as eight points. A Rasmussen survey had him ahead by six.
Nor is Trump “limping” in RCP’s seven battleground states that can tip an election: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Trump leads in them all.
Battleground states offer 93 electoral votes on November 5. If the rest of the nation goes as expected, Biden will have 226 electoral votes to Trump’s 219, nearly a tie. With 270 needed to win, either candidate must take the majority of those votes.
Biden needs 44 of those votes to win; Trump needs 51.
