While many people no doubt suspected this news was coming, I wasn't prepared to believe it until it actually happened. This morning, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley announced that she will be suspending her presidential campaign. It seems that one victory in Vermont and another in the District of Columbia were not enough to keep up her quixotic quest for the nomination. She was roundly trounced around the country on Super Tuesday as the polls predicted and no longer has a path to securing enough delegates to prevail at the convention. The announcement is expected to take place around 10 am Eastern. But even in defeat, Haley had some unkind words for Donald Trump and sounded more like she was aligning with the Democrats than the eventual GOP nominee. (NY Post)

Nikki Haley is set to suspend her Republican presidential bid following another series of defeats on Super Tuesday, according to multiple reports.

The former South Carolina governor and UN ambassador is expected to formally drop out of the race during a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday in her home state of South Carolina, the Wall Street Journal was first to report.

She will not endorse former President Donald Trump but will encourage him to earn the support of those who had backed her, sources told the paper.

I could never really blame Haley for entering the race and giving it a try. She clearly had an earnest desire to be President and believed she was capable of pulling it off. Donald Trump isn't technically an incumbent and even if he were, nobody is entitled to the nomination if others wish to challenge them. But it quickly became obvious that Trump was the defacto nominee in all but name. DeSantis, Tim Scott, and Ramaswamy realized this in a timely fashion and exited (mostly) gracefully, tossing their endorsements to Trump. Haley will not even endorse Trump now that the end has arrived.

One of the main mysteries that may remain even after today is the question of whether Nikki Haley really believed she still had a viable chance to win or she was just trying to send a message. She made no campaign appearances last night and reports this morning claim that she spent the evening "huddled with staff watching returns near her home." That sounds to me as if she was still crossing her fingers and hoping for a miracle despite a mountain of polling showing her trailing Trump badly. There's nothing wrong with that, of course. Hope springs eternal, as the saying goes. But it wasn't terribly realistic thinking, either.

Haley has already issued a warning, saying that the Republicans who supported her will not vote for Trump in November. She also urged Trump to reach out and make an effort to heal the divide and win them over. That may be true in some cases, and Trump can ill afford to lose a large block of voters from his own party. But when push comes to shove, how many Republicans are such hard-core NeverTrumpers that they would actually pull a lever for Biden in November? The bigger danger is that they might decide to vote third-party or simply stay home.

Historians and political nerds will probably debate the impact of Haley's performance for some time to come. There is no doubt that she made an outsized splash in the political pool and vastly increased her name recognition. But did she do so in a positive way? If she still maintains any dreams of trying again in 2028, that will be an important question for her to address. Her refusal to endorse Trump at this stage simply speaks of bitterness and resentment. That's not a good look in American national politics. Much will depend on whether Donald Trump wins in November. If he does and his policies turn out to be popular and effective, she would be one of many hoping to replace him. Rather than being viewed as someone who would continue those policies, she could easily be remembered as someone who tried to thwart them. Time will tell.