Nearly two months after suspending her presidential campaign, former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is set to meet with top donors to her Republican presidential campaign early this week in Charleston, South Carolina.
But it’s not a meeting on how former President Donald Trump’s vanquished rival can help Republicans win office in November.
A source close to Haley said that she is not expected to encourage her donors to contribute to Trump’s general election campaign, and an endorsement of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee is not forthcoming.
Haley launched her presidential campaign in February 2023, becoming the first major candidate to challenge former President Donald Trump.
In the end, she remained the final rival to Trump and engaged him in an expensive, two-candidate showdown from the New Hampshire primary in late January through Super Tuesday in early March. Haley announced the suspension of her White House campaign on March 6, the day after Trump trounced her and swept 14 of 15 GOP nominating contests on Super Tuesday.
Despite exiting the race, Haley emphasized her intention to continue speaking out.
“While I will no longer be a candidate, I will not stop using my voice for the things I believe in,” she said at her presidential campaign headquarters in Charleston.
Haley has repeatedly refused declined to endorse Trump and has not spoken with him since leaving the race.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” Haley said in March, referring to her supporters during her White House run.
Some top members of Haley’s campaign, including those from the fundraising team, are expected to attend this week’s high profile donor gathering. Haley and groups aligned with her campaign raised over $160 million from nearly 300,000 donors.
Haley continues to garner votes in the Republican primaries. Critics of Trump say that Haley’s staying power could signal trouble for Trump in his general election rematch with President Joe Biden later this year.
In Tuesday’s GOP presidential primary in Indiana, which was open to Republicans, independents, and Democrats, Haley won nearly 22% of the vote.
Last month, Haley joined the Hudson Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization focused on foreign and domestic policy, national security, economics, and international relations.
Hudson President and CEO John P. Walters praised Haley as “a proven, effective leader on both foreign and domestic policy” and “a steadfast defender of freedom and an effective advocate for American security and prosperity.”
During her White House bid, Haley advocated for a neoconservative U.S. foreign policy to address global hot spots such as the war between Russia and Ukraine and the fighting between Israel and Hamas, often contrasting with Trump’s America First agenda that seeks to avoid international entanglements.