UPDATE - Haley drops out of US presidential race, leaving Trump with clear path to Republican nomination

ADDS DETAILS THROUGHOUT

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - Nikki Haley, the former US envoy to the UN, and governor from the state of South Carolina, said Wednesday she is abandoning her 2024 presidential campaign, leaving ex-President Donald Trump, with a clear path to the Republican nomination.

Haley did not endorse her former boss in announcing her withdrawal, instead she said it is now his task to earn the votes of those who supported her White House bid.

"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," Haley told supporters in her native South Carolina.

"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," she said. "This is now his time for choosing."

Haley's announcement was roundly expected after she failed to produce a strong showing on Super Tuesday.

While she was the first woman to win a Republican primary contest, taking the nation's capital and the state of Vermont, Trump has long dominated the field, and swept 14 of the 15 states that voted Tuesday.

Trump appeared to dismiss Haley's appeal and instead gloated at her defeat, saying she "got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion."

"At this point, I hope she stays in the 'race' and fights it out until the end! I’d like to thank my family, friends, and the Great Republican Party for helping me to produce, by far, the most successful Super Tuesday in HISTORY, and would further like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation," he wrote on Truth Social, his proprietary social media website.

President Joe Biden, however, commended Haley's "courage," saying she "was willing to speak the truth about Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin."

"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. 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," he said in a statement.