Nikki Haley Falls Short in Bid to Be First Female US President

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announces the suspension of her presidential campaign at her campaign headquarters in Daniel Island, S.C., on March 6, 2024. Sean Rayford/Getty Images

At Nikki Haley’s presidential launch in February 2023, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) called the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the U.N. “America’s version of Margaret Thatcher.”

However, Ms. Haley’s goal of being elected America’s Iron Lady and first female president in 2024 ended on March 6 as she announced the end of her campaign following the death knell to her campaign on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, when she lost all but one contest.

“I am filled with gratitude for the outpouring of support we’ve received from across our great country,” she said in a brief concession speech in South Carolina.

“But the time has now come to suspend my campaign,” she continued. “I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard. I have done that. I have no regrets.”

Breaking Out From the Field

Ms. Haley was the first major GOP candidate to jump into the race after former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive GOP nominee. She went from single to double digits in the polls, helped primarily by her debate performances.

Following the debates, Ms. Haley saw poll after poll show an increase in terms of the percentage of voters who would cast their ballot for her. However, they showed her trailing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Trump. She even had the biggest bump among the candidates following the first debate.

As her campaign progressed, Ms. Haley got the backing of wealthy individuals, including hedge fund manager Ken Griffin, businessman Chad Walldorf, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, New Balance owner Jim Davis, Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone, and philanthropist Stanley Druckenmiller. Mr. Hoffman’s support was notable, given his support for Democrats.

The campaign, however, was not without controversy

Ms. Haley initially declined to say that a main cause of the Civil War was slavery, but almost immediately reversed course, and she said the United States has “never been a racist country.” She doubled down on that, citing her growing up in post-Jim Crow South Carolina, where she faced racism because of her Indian heritage but refused to believe that America is racist and that there is equal opportunity for everyone.

While Ms. Haley started her campaign mostly not attacking President Trump, she intensified her attacks on the former Oval Office occupant shortly before the Iowa Caucus. She lamented the trillions of dollars added to the national debt not only under President Joe Biden, but also President Trump. She also went after President Trump on foreign policy, his age and character, and other policy issues.

Trump’s Grip of GOP Blocked Her Path

In the end, it was simply the Trump factor that caused Haley’s comet to fall back to earth, as those in her orbit told The Epoch Times.

Additionally, she struggled to set a contrast between her and President Trump as it was a matter of circumstance, and that a vast majority of Republican voters went with President Trump. She had trouble gaining traction early on.

However, Mr. Norman, the only House member and one of three members of Congress to endorse Ms. Haley, said there was nothing wrong with the campaign.

“When you run for office, nothing’s guaranteed. You take your message; you take it to the voters,” he said.“And the good news is nobody worked harder than Nikki. I don’t know that she can look back and say that she would do anything differently.”

But Eric Stenson, a major GOP donor who contributed financially to her campaign, said she did not establish enough of a connection with voters and did not offer enough of a reason to vote for someone other than President Trump, to whom Mr. Stenson said he will soon cut a six-figure donation. Had she gained traction early on, he said she would have been less polarizing.

Nonetheless, fundraising was not an issue for the campaign. She even had the support of the Koch-backed AFP Action, the largest conservative grassroots organization in the country, though it turned off its money spigot for her after her humiliating loss in the South Carolina primary. Mr. Stenson said he has no regrets about donating to her campaign and that he did so because she is “an interesting person.”

Whereas Mr. DeSantis was flying private throughout his campaign, Ms. Haley took commercial flights.

As Mr. DeSantis burned through cash, Ms. Haley, an accountant, was meticulous about her campaign’s budgeting and did not start spending big until near the Jan. 15 Iowa Caucus, where she came in a close third to Mr. DeSantis and President Trump.

Ms. Haley continued her quest for the presidency past the South Carolina primary, citing concerns about the direction of the GOP—from going from a muscular to a semi-isolationist foreign policy to enacting reckless spending in Washington. She also wanted to show that the GOP could win back suburban voters with a candidate like herself.

Mr. Stenson said Ms. Haley stayed in the race past her home state primary to show that she is a fighter, continuing to promote her brand and pushing back on the GOP direction under President Trump.

Mr. Norman said that despite her unsuccessful run for the Oval Office, Ms. Haley “has a great career ahead of her whatever that holds, and she’s the same person I knew when I endorsed her 13 months ago and  knew back when she came into the state House.”

A Possible Haley 2028 Campaign and No Endorsement of Trump

Ms. Haley could run for the top job again in 2028, though that could hinge on who wins in November, and the world could look very different then.

As of February, her campaign, Stand for America PAC and SFA Fund Inc., had about $14.9 million in the bank, though the up-to-date figures have yet to be released. Nonetheless, it is safe to say she will have millions to hit the ground running were she to launch another White House bid in four years.

“What gets most campaigns in trouble is when you don’t have the funds to get the message out to the mass media. She did that,” said Mr. Norman. He noted that it was the people’s fondness for President Trump and the four indictments against the former president, whom he endorsed after Ms. Haley dropped out, that “played into the race” as his supporters sensed “the injustice done to him through the court systems” and the weaponization of the judiciary.

While Mr. Norman said he does not know if Ms. Haley will run again, he said he would “love to see her do it again.”

Mr. Stenson said he would not necessarily donate to a Haley 2028 campaign. While she has admirable qualities, he said, she does not have the traditional character of a presidential candidate.

Meanwhile, Ms. Haley congratulated President Trump and wished him well but declined to endorse him. She said that now he needs to earn the support of her followers.

“I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee,” she said.

“But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, ‘Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.’”

Mrs. Thatcher was the longest-serving British prime minister of the 20th century and the first woman to hold the position.

At the end of the day, said Ms. Haley, “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. 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.”