So, what’s gonna be the excuse this time, Ambassador Haley?
After you lost New Hampshire, you assured voters that this state — arguably your best chance to beat GOP front-runner Donald Trump — was irrelevant and that your “sweet state of South Carolina” was next.
It wasn’t, actually. Nevada was next — but because of the state’s strange rules, you ran in the primary while Trump ran in the caucuses. The primary was yours to win … because no other serious, active candidate was in it. You ended up losing to “none of these candidates.” You called that process “rigged.”
If your 2024 campaign wasn’t enough of an omnishambles already, your sweet state of South Carolina — where you were governor, we remember — did end up voting this past Saturday. It handed a sweet, 20-point victory to Donald J. Trump, according to The New York Times.
Nevertheless, you remained committed.
“What I saw today was South Carolina’s frustration with our country’s direction. I’ve seen that same frustration nationwide,” you said in your concession speech Saturday night, according to The Associated Press.
“I don’t believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden,” you added, noting that, “I said earlier this week that no matter what happens in South Carolina, I would continue to run. I’m a woman of my word.”
BREAKING: Donald Trump has defeated Nikki Haley in the Republican Michigan primary just minutes after voting ended.
Nikki Haley must love humiliation.
After getting demolished in her home state last week, Haley refused to get out of the race because she is a “woman of her… pic.twitter.com/dMexp7e9I6
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 28, 2024
Yes. And that word has now netted you another primary loss, this one the biggest defeat so far. Nice work!
With 94 percent of the votes counted, results published by the Times show a blowout win in Michigan for Donald Trump, who led Haley 68.2 percent to 26.5 percent as of 6:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. Three percent of the vote was uncommitted.
“We win Michigan, we win the whole thing,” Trump, speaking by telephone, told supporters at a watch party in Michigan, according to the Times. He said the victory was “far greater than anticipated.”
The only consolation for Haley was that it technically wasn’t. There was sparse polling for the race in Michigan because it’s a state that plays to Trump’s strengths. The only two polls in the RealClearPolitics polling aggregate that had Trump and Haley in a mano-a-femano matchup showed him leading 79 percent to 19 percent and 76 percent to 24 percent, respectively.
And it’s not like Haley didn’t know this was a lost cause. Consider that she spent the day of the Michigan primary … in Colorado.
@NikkiHaley takes the stage at rally outside Denver, Colorado. #copolitics @DenverChannel pic.twitter.com/agj9plFs7e
— Brandon Richard (@BrandonLRichard) February 27, 2024
She did indicate on social media that she’d visited some places in Michigan. And then gotten the heck out.
In the last 72 hours, we’ve met voters in…
📍Troy, Michigan
📍Grand Rapids, Michigan
📍Bloomington, Minnesota
📍Centennial, ColoradoThat’s more than 1,600 miles traveled, but when the country’s on the line, you can’t let your foot off the gas!
UTAH you’re next! See you soon!
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 27, 2024
After this loss, Haley sent her spokeswoman out to reassure people that Haley was a woman of her word and that Michigan wasn’t really the loss people seem to think it was.
Instead, campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas said the number of voters who didn’t vote for the former president represented a “flashing warning sign for Trump in November,” according to the Times.
Right, yes. Absolutely. The 26.5 of people voting in a Republican primary that didn’t prefer Donald Trump to Nikki Haley is just a siren a-wailin’ away.
Will Trump win the nomination?
Meanwhile, on the Democratic side, President Joe Biden, running a mostly uncontested race, gave up 13.3 percent of the vote to “uncommitted” voters likely unhappy with his stance on the Israel-Hamas conflict, and nearly 6 percent to the combined vote total of Minnesota Rep. Dean Phillips’ moribund challenge to the president and “spiritual guru” Marianne Williamson, who’s no longer in the race.
That’s nearly 20 percent combined for nobody, a failed candidate and a self-help space cadet who’s already dropped out, respectively. But it’s Trump who should be worried about the vote totals Nikki Haley took home. OK.
Look, it’s painfully obvious that, at this point, Haley is a protest candidate against Donald Trump. She’s essentially Chris Christie with more recent government experience, slightly less barbed rhetoric when it comes to the former president, and 2 million fewer loyalty points on her Subway rewards card.
It’s over. It was arguably over in your “sweet state of South Carolina,” Nikki, but it’s really and truly over now. Any vote for you is simply a vote to prolong a process that’s already over — and every subsequent primary humiliation you suffer from here on in will be another chance to play what’s become your sweet campaign theme song, “Send in the Clowns.”
