Nikki Haley supporters responded with deep disappointment to the former U.N. Ambassador’s announcement on March 6 that she is suspending her 2024 presidential campaign.
Melinda Tourangeau, co-chair of the New Hampshire for Nikki Coalition and a member of Ms. Haley’s NH Leadership Team, told The Epoch Times that she is concerned for the country now that former President Donald Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.“I am writing in Nikki on the ballot in November,” said Ms. Tourangeau, “I’ve never wasted my vote before, but there was never more reason to stick to my principles.”
Ms. Haley made her decision to drop out of the race following President Trump’s near sweep of the Super Tuesday primaries, where he won 14 of 15 contests.
Ms. Tourangeau said she believes President Trump’s cantankerous personality and numerous legal problems will divide the nation if he returns to the White House.
An Air Force veteran, Ms. Tourangeau said she was OK with President Trump as the alternative winner over Ms. Haley as the party nominee until he criticized Ms. Haley’s husband for being absent from the campaign trail. Michael Haley, an active duty Army National Guard staff officer, is on deployment to Africa.
“That was the last straw for me,” she said.
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Dylan McCloskey, a self-described ultra-conservative and staunch Haley supporter, told The Epoch Times he won’t even consider supporting President Trump until he apologizes for his vow to permanently ban anyone who contributed to Ms. Haley from his Make America Great Again (MAGA) campaign.
“He'll have to earn my vote—like she said in her speech—it’s not a guaranteed thing,” said the 26-year-old Missouri attorney, referring to comments Ms. Haley made when she announced she was ending her campaign.
Mr. McCloskey, who voted for President Trump in 2016 and 2020, called for people to vote for Ms. Haley even though she has dropped out of the race.
“If your state hasn’t voted, you should still vote for Nikki Haley to force Trump to move towards us and earn your ‘permanently banned’ status,” he posted on X. Mr. McCloskey said he and his mother supported Ms. Haley in the recent Missouri Republican caucus.
During her four-minute exit speech, Ms. Haley said she has “always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee.” She then quoted the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. imparting what she saw as good cautionary advice: “Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.”
‘It’s Up to Trump to Earn the Votes’
She said it is now “up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond who did not support [him.] And I hope he does.”Ms. Haley congratulated President Trump and wished him well, but she did not endorse him.
So far, the closest President Trump has come to making amends for his threat to Haley supporters was in a Truth Social post inviting them to “join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation."
“BIDEN IS THE ENEMY, HE IS DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!!!,” Mr. Trump added in his message, which he posted as Ms. Haley announced she was dropping her bid for the presidency.
Ms. Haley’s political allies took a more measured approach in response to her decision.
South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman told The Epoch Times that he is “so proud to have stood by his good friend for the duration” of her candidacy.
He also congratulated President Trump and said he looked forward to “uniting the party to throw Joe Biden out of office.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed Ms. Haley, campaigned alongside her and was seen by some as her speculative vice president pick, made a brief statement about her decision.
“Nikki Haley was the first candidate into the arena to challenge Donald Trump and knocked everyone else out of the race,“ said Mr. Sununu. He called her ”a patriot and a friend who ran a great campaign, and made sure it was the voters, not the media or party elites, that had the final say.”
Some lamented that Ms. Haley was the last chance for the Republican party to win back the White House, predicting that the country’s large pool of independent voters will now swing to President Joe Biden in the general election in November.
Mr. Norman said he was not concerned about a Trump and Biden rematch because he believes “the American people are smart and can see the stark differences in their lives” when comparing President Trump’s term in office to President Biden’s.
“They can see that there weren’t illegal immigrants flooding our nation and murdering people; they can see that we didn’t have a failing foreign policy; they can see that we didn’t have record levels of inflation,” he said.
Mr. McCloskey sees it differently, calling Mr. Trump “the real RINO in the race.” He said Mr. Trump made lengthy speeches that failed to reveal any real policy proposals to fix the debt or solve foreign conflicts such as the Russia-Ukraine War.
While Ms. Haley was labeled a warmonger, Ms. Tourangeau believes the country lost a great opportunity to have a commander in chief with foreign diplomacy experience like Ms. Haley had after serving as U.N. Ambassador in the Trump administration.
“She’s no warmonger; she believes in peace through strength,” said Ms. Tourangeau, whose support for the candidate was strengthened by their military connection.
Overall, the vast majority of social media posts that followed Ms. Haley’s announcement were in celebration that she was leaving the race.
A noticeable number of them were sexist in nature.
In a CBS interview posted on X, a North Carolina man made a crude reference to her lack of male genitalia. For that reason, he said, she could never make a good president—because she’s a woman.
Several X users who identified themselves as Trump supporters posted mock videos that sexually degraded Ms. Haley.
“I am hoping they are mostly internet trolls who have nothing better to do,” said Mr McCloskey.
He and many others said they are expecting to see Ms. Haley return to the campaign trail in 2028 to make another run for the presidency.
