Since the night of the New Hampshire primary, Nikki Haley has faced one constant question: when would she drop out?
It came from GOP party leaders, who called on her to suspend her campaign as former President Donald Trump racked up more wins, and from political observers who assumed she would rather leave the race than face a potentially embarrassing defeat in her home state of South Carolina.
But for weeks, Haley made clear publicly and privately that the make-or-break point of her campaign would come on Super Tuesday, when GOP primary voters in more than a dozen states, including delegate rich California and Texas, weighed in.
When they did, the answer was crystal clear: Trump won nearly every contest that night, save for Vermont, where his remaining primary rival eked out a victory.
“I said I wanted Americans to have their voices heard,” Haley said hours later as she suspended her campaign Wednesday morning. “I have done that. I have no regrets.”
Haley had been the first of Trump’s challengers to launch her campaign, and became the last to suspend it. The nearly 13 months of campaigning had come to an end, with Haley becoming the first woman to win a GOP primary contest – but also with Trump still sailing toward his third straight presidential nomination in a row.
For now, Haley faces a new question: will she endorse Trump? On Wednesday, she did not, instead calling on the former president to practice the politics of addition and “earn” the vote of those who didn’t back him. Her goal is to open up a conversation about issues within the Republican Party, and to push the party towards unity.
In the days leading up to her decision to suspend her bid, her campaign received a significant amount of feedback on the subject of endorsing Trump or…
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