Republican presidential hopeful and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley holds a rally on January 24, 2024 in North Charleston, South Carolina. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images)

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley plans to withdraw from the Republican presidential contest Wednesday, ending her increasingly long-shot bid of toppling former President Donald Trump, according to multiple media sources.

Haley will give a speech at 10 a.m. Wednesday in Charleston, where she started her bid, The Wall Street Journal first reported.

While she fell far short of being the GOP nominee, the South Carolina-born daughter of Indian immigrants made history as the first woman to win a GOP presidential primary.

She kept her pledge to stay in until Super Tuesday, when voters in 15 states went to the polls to choose between the two. She won only the smallest state — Vermont — bringing her tally to two.

When it was obvious the day had added little to her count, U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina — who left the race in November — again called on Haley to step aside too and endorse Trump.

“Thank you for running. You’ve been courageous and strong and tenacious,” Scott, who was first appointed to the Senate by Haley, said Tuesday night on Fox News, adding it’s time for her to get behind Trump and concentrate on ousting President Joe Biden.

“This is no longer about any other candidate than Donald Trump,” Scott continued. “Voters have spoken. They’ve spoken clearly.”

Haley made no public appearance Tuesday as she watched the results from home, signaling an end was near.

She’s not expected to endorse Trump. For weeks, she’s been pointing to her voters as proof he will have problems in November, which her campaign continued to do late Tuesday in a statement that took another swipe at her former boss.

“Unity is not achieved by simply claiming ‘we’re united,’” Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in an email. “Today, in state after state, there remains a large block of Republican primary voters who are expressing deep concerns about Donald Trump. That is not the unity our party needs for success. Addressing those voters’ concerns will make the Republican Party and America better.”

But as perhaps a sign Trump knew she was done, he never mentioned Haley’s name in his Super Tuesday victory speech.

Haley managed to outlast 12 other Republican “fellas,” as she liked to say after becoming the lone candidate standing in Trump’s way of the nomination.

However, despite getting the one-on-one she wanted early in the voting calendar, her path to a win looked increasingly improbable, even as she insisted otherwise.

The Trump-versus-Haley race grew fiery once Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis bowed out ahead of the New Hampshire primary. After she lost by 11 percentage points in the Granite State — which turned out to be her closest losing margin — the calls for her to withdraw intensified.

She refused, spinning defeats as win.

She noted rising from just 2% in the polls to 43% of New Hampshire GOP primary voters choosing her. She told South Carolina voters that Trump should feel threatened by her rise. The claim clearly irked him.

Trump responded by threatening to permanently bar from “MAGA camp” anyone who continued to donate to her campaign. Haley was undeterred, pitching herself as the choice of reason and normalcy instead of two old men with questionable mental fitness. The 52-year-old former governor called on both 81-year-old Biden and 77-year-old Trump to take competency tests.

She said chaos follows Trump. His first United Nations ambassador accused him of being unhinged and dangerous on the world stage. He called her birdbrain. She called him a chicken for not debating her.

And her donations kept coming — for a while.

In January alone, her campaign raised over $11.5 million, according to her disclosures.

The cash allowed her to back up her pledge to keep giving voters a choice through Super Tuesday, when 854 delegates were up for grabs. Ahead of Tuesday’s voting, Haley had 43 delegates to Trump’s 273.

“Dropping out would be the easy route. I’ve never taken the easy route,” Haley said in Greenville ahead of the Feb. 24 contest in South Carolina. “I’ve always been David taking on Goliath.”

She leaned into her perpetual underdog status, recalling her first win to the South Carolina House in 2004, when she defeated the chamber’s then-longest-serving legislator for a seat in Lexington County. And she recounted her come-from-behind win in 2010, when she defeated a congressman, the attorney general and lieutenant governor to become South Carolina’s first female and first minority governor.

But even in her home state, her popularity among Republicans waned as she stepped up attacks against the GOP frontrunner, according to Winthrop Poll results in February versus November.

Trump attracted thousands to rallies in South Carolina. Haley attracted hundreds — sometimes just dozens — as she traveled the state by bus.

She ultimately lost her home state by 20 percentage points. And that dried up some of her key financial support.

Americans for Prosperity Action, an organization founded by prominent conservative billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, had never endorsed a presidential candidate prior to Haley. Following her South Carolina loss, the group announced it would no longer spend money to promote her.

Her losing margins grew wider, though she picked up her first win?in Washington, D.C., last weekend, which accounted for 19 of her delegates.

And she continued to campaign hard, holding 15 rallies across nine states following the South Carolina primary.

She picked up endorsements from GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Susan Collins of Maine, two of the 15 Super Tuesday states, and released new ads. They didn’t help.

On Tuesday, she won only the smallest of the states, Vermont, and it’s not yet unclear how many of its 17 delegates will go to her tally. Under Vermont rules, she needs to cross 50% to take all 17. As of Wednesday morning, she was at 49.9%, according to The Associated Press.

Around midnight, her campaign continued to spin the positive.

“We’re honored to have received the support of millions of Americans across the country today, including in Vermont where Nikki became the first Republican woman to win two presidential primary contests,” Perez-Cubas said in a statement, referring to Vermont and Washington, D.C.

What the future holds for Haley is unclear after her insistence to stay in and step up attacks riled the MAGA faithful. Trump has made clear she’s not on his list as a running mate.

On Sunday, Haley walked back a promise to endorse Trump if he wins the nomination.

This article is republished from the?SC Daily Gazette, a sister publication of the Kentucky Lantern and part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.?

A voter casts a ballot on Super Tuesday at City Center on March 5, 2024 in Little Rock, Arkansas. (Will Newton/Getty Images)

Hundreds of delegates were at stake in the Super Tuesday presidential primaries bonanza that included 15 states and the U.S. territory of American Samoa. While former President Donald Trump netted the lion’s share of delegates, Republican challenger Nikki Haley pulled her second upset in recent days in Vermont. President Joe Biden extended his winning streak, including in Iowa which announced the results of Democrats’ first mail-in presidential preference contest.

In Colorado and Maine the former president easily won the nomination and delegates.?Both states had disqualified Trump from their Republican primaries because of his role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection only to be overruled Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Biden and Trump also came out on top in North Carolina, but the most watched races in the state were the gubernatorial primaries. Voters winnowed a vast field of candidates vying to become the state’s next governor in what is expected to be one of the most heated and expensive gubernatorial races in the nation. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a MAGA Republican who has the backing of Trump, will face off against Attorney General Josh Stein, who led all candidates in polling and fundraising during the primary period.

Here’s a look at other states holding Super Tuesday primaries:

Alabama: The Democratic primary in the newly drawn 2nd Congressional District yielded a runoff between former Department of Justice official Shomari Figures and Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels. The GOP primary for the district looked to be heading in the same direction as the night wore on. Redistricting also altered the 1st Congressional District, forcing two Republican incumbents to face-off — U.S. Rep. Barry Moore of Enterprise beat U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile.

On the state Supreme Court, Associate Justice Sarah Stewart beat former state Sen. Bryan Taylor in the Republican primary for the chief justice seat. In November, she will face Judge Greg Griffin, a Democrat who ran unopposed. This race pulled fresh interest after the mid-February embryo decision that jeopardized in vitro fertilization in the state.

Alaska: Republicans are conducting a caucus to pick a presidential nominee, with 29 delegates at stake. Other races will be decided in a primary election in August. Results were expected sometime after midnight East Coast time.

American Samoa: The U.S. territory of American Samoa continued its tradition of quirky primary results, handing the majority of votes to little-known Baltimore businessman Jason Palmer, the Associated Press reports. Palmer, who reportedly campaigned personally in the remote Pacific island territory, got 51 of the 91 votes cast, with Biden getting the rest. The territory, which handed former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg his only win in 2020, will send six delegates to the Democratic convention this summer, but residents do not have a vote in the presidential election in November.

Arkansas: Democratic and Republican presidential primaries went to Biden and Trump as expected. In the 3rd Congressional District, Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Womack, who’s served in the House since 2011, pulled out a win over Arkansas Sen. Clint Penzo. Plus, two state Supreme Court seats, including chief justice were up for grabs.

California: California Democrats strongly backed Biden, with 90.5% in early returns, leading the Associated Press to call the race for him. Republicans backed Trump with 74.7% in early returns, the AP reports.

Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff was the top vote getter in two U.S. Senate elections, the Associated Press reports. In the race to fill the unexpired term of the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein, he led Republican former baseball player Steve Garvey 34.0% to 31.4%? in early returns. In the race for the full six-year term that begins in January 2025, he led Garvey 36.8% to 29.7%. Under the state’s open primary system, the two top vote getters will advance to a runoff in November, with the other candidates eliminated, including Democratic Reps. Katie Porter and Barbara Lee.

Also on the primary ballot are members of the House, state legislative contests, county supervisor candidates, and a $6.38 billion bond measure to boost mental and behavioral health treatment and to combat homelessness. Early returns suggest that the measure was headed for a narrow victory, 51.3-48.7%, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Colorado: Trump cruised to an easy victory in the Republican presidential primary after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on Monday overturned a decision from state justices that he was disqualified for engaging in insurrection during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Democrats chose Biden, who was declared the victor shortly after polls closed. Their primary ballots also included a “noncommitted delegate,” who would not be obligated to support any particular candidate at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August. The option was launched last-minute as an objection to Biden’s role in the war in Gaza. But “noncommitted” was pulling only 7% in early returns and would need at least 15% to be awarded delegates.

Maine: Biden and Trump easily win. But whether Trump would appear on the ballot was in doubt until Monday. Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows withdrew her decision disqualifying the former president after the U.S. Supreme Court decision in the Colorado case.

Massachusetts: AP called the primaries for Trump and Biden.

Minnesota: Minnesota voters only had presidential candidates on their primary ballot. Trump and Biden took all the state’s delegates, according to the AP. Minnesota’s own U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips was still on the Democrats’ ballot, but he wasn’t posing much of a threat to the president. Much like Michigan in late February, there was a push here for Democrats (known as the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party in Minnesota) to mark “uncommitted” on their ballots to tell Biden he should stop backing Israel’s ongoing onslaught against Gaza.

North Carolina: AP called the races for Biden and Trump shortly after the polls closed. Voters also were casting ballots for council of state, legislative and congressional races. New gerrymandered maps mean the state most likely will send 10 Republicans to the U.S. House, up from seven.

Oklahoma: Biden and Trump coasted to victory in Oklahoma, where the presidential primaries were the only statewide races on the ballot. The AP called the major party races shortly after polls closed.

Tennessee: Trump easily swept the Republican primary with around 78% of the vote, despite heavy spending and recent campaigning in the state in support of Haley. Biden faced no opponent in Tennessee’s Democratic primary, but he got only 92% of the vote, with everyone else choosing “uncommitted.”

Texas: As expected, Biden and Trump won their primaries in Texas, sweeping the second-biggest prize of delegates into their tallies. But the more interesting races in America’s largest red state were down ballot. U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz handily won the Republican primary, but Democrats picked him as a seat to flip in their nationwide press to keep the Senate majority. U.S. Sen. Colin Allred, from Dallas, won the Democratic primary, according to the AP.

Utah: Biden easily defeated four rivals in Utah’s primary election, the AP reports. With more than half the votes counted, Biden had 88% of the vote. The state has 34 total delegates to the Democratic National Convention, allotted by the percentage of the vote received by each candidate.

Republicans and two minor parties held caucuses. Republicans also conducted a “presidential preference poll,” simultaneously with the caucus. The poll will determine which candidate gets the state’s 40 national convention delegates. The caucus will only select delegates for county and state conventions later this summer. Results were still pending from the GOP polls by midnight East Coast time.

Vermont: Vermont was a bright spot for Haley and only a slight road bump for Trump. It was the first state Haley won, stopping a Trump sweep in Republican primaries. Biden easily won among the Democrats.

Virginia: Biden and Trump faced light competition, easily winning their nominations. The primary election for Virginia’s only other statewide contest this year, the Senate seat held by Democrat Tim Kaine, will be in June.