(Headline USA) One of the GOP megadonors backing presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign admitted this week that it was time for the former United Nations ambassador to drop out after her back-to-back losses in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Nick Sabin, who has contributed more than $1.7 million to various Republican campaigns in the past few election cycles, told Fox Business on Wednesday that Haley should “walk away” from the race before South Carolina’s primary on Feb. 24.
“You have to know when to hold them. You got to know when to fold them. You got to know when to walk away. It’s time for Nikki Haley to walk away,” he said, referencing singer Kenny Rogers’s hit song “The Gambler.”
Sabin noted that if Haley doesn’t drop out soon, she’ll suffer a “political suicide” in her home state of South Carolina, where former President Donald Trump is leading her in the polls by more than 30 points and where she served as governor.
“There’s absolutely no upside to her going to South Carolina. And there’s a tremendous downside,” he said. “If you can’t win your own state, there’s no reason to go on.”
Despite this risk, Haley has vowed to stay in the race past South Carolina. The fault for this decision lies with her consultants and staffers, said Sabin.
“They don’t want to lose their paychecks,” he said. “So they tell Nikki Haley what she wants to hear, not what she should hear, and what she should hear [is] there’s no viable path to continue.”
The donor added that Haley would be the “first” person he writes a check to in 2028, but for now she needs to accept that Trump will be the GOP nominee.
Trump has blasted Haley over the past week for refusing to drop out, warning her staffers and any donors who continue to fund her campaign that they will be “permanently barred from the MAGA camp.”
He blasted her donors as establishment “RINOs” and Democrats, saying, “We don’t want them, and we will not accept them, because we put America First and ALWAYS WILL!”
However, after Ronna McDaniel, the chair of the Republican National Committee, called on Haley to drop out of the race, Trump noted that he would rather win the primary outright through voters than appear to be declared the nominee by the RNC.
Some have speculated that Haley is hoping the leftist lawfare attacks on Trump will deter enough supporters that they will seek a viable alternative if the former president is indicted.
Thus far, however, the weaponization of the justice system has only helped to further entrench his support and persuade voters that Trump should be elected in order to settle scores with the corrupt bad actors who have undermined the public’s faith in America’s once trusted institutions.
