Nikki Haley ended her long-shot challenge to Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump on Wednesday (March 06), ensuring the former president will be the party's candidate in a rematch with Democratic President Joe Biden in November's election, Reuters reports.
Haley, the former South Carolina governor, and Trump's ambassador to the United Nations when he was president, made the announcement in a speech in Charleston a day after Super Tuesday, when Trump beat her soundly in 14 of 15 Republican nominating contests.
She said it was likely Trump - who repeatedly belittled her candidacy - would be the Republican nominee but did not endorse him.
Haley lasted longer than any other Republican challenger to Trump but never posed a serious threat to the former president, whose iron grip on the party's base remains firm despite multiple criminal indictments.