Following Donald Trump’s near-sweep on Super Tuesday, Republican challenger Nikki Haley suspended her campaign, making Trump the last remaining major Republican candidate in the race, the Associated Press reported.
Haley managed to win two primaries before bowing out, defeating Trump in the March 3 primary in Washington, D.C., and preventing Trump from winning all 15 Super Tuesday states by scoring a victory in Vermont.
In a speech to supporters in Charleston, South Carolina the following Wednesday, Haley congratulated Trump on his Super Tuesday wins but stopped short of endorsing the former president.
Instead, Haley urged Trump to reach out to moderate and independent voters who supported her in the primary, saying it was up to him to earn their votes. She suggested that Trump should remember that politics was about “bringing people into your cause” rather than “turning them away.”
Donald Trump scored significant victories on Super Tuesday, including in the delegate-rich states of Texas and California, and brought his total delegate count to 1,050, only 165 delegates short of the 1,125 needed to secure the nomination.
The remaining delegates were easily secured in the March 12 primaries in Washington, Georgia, and Mississippi, which pushed Trump over the top, clinching the nomination.
Both Donald Trump and President Biden secured their parties’ nominations on March 12, kicking off the start of the 2024 General Election match-up with 238 days remaining until November 5.
In a video statement, the former president described Tuesday as a “great day of victory” but said there wasn’t time to celebrate, adding that the celebration would come in “eight months when the election is over.”
In a statement released after clinching the Democrat nomination, President Biden thanked the Democrat voters for placing their trust in him to lead the party when the threat Donald Trump posed was “greater than ever.”
This is the first time in modern history the two major party candidates clinched the nomination so early in the primary process.
