TIME FOR CHOOSING — One by one, they’ve bent the knee and tasted the boot polish. Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio. Lindsey Graham. Ron DeSantis. The list goes on. Today, one of the last holdouts, Sen. Mitch McConnell, caved and delivered his own endorsement to Donald Trump, all but acknowledging Trump’s absolute and total dominion over the party they once owned. For some, the submission came in the service of ambition. Others did it for the sake of party unity. The common thread is that each was diminished by the capitulation, taking them ever further from the principles that led them to public service years ago. Now it’s Nikki Haley’s turn. Haley suspended her presidential campaign today on the heels of a Super Tuesday wipeout — she lost 14 of the 15 states voting. Yet she consciously avoided the words that Trump and the GOP were waiting to hear in her speech today. If anything, there were notes of defiance designed for Mar-a-Lago’s consumption. She conceded Trump will be the Republican nominee — she prefaced it with “in all likelihood” — and congratulated him on his victory. She noted she has always supported the Republican nominee. Then she deliberately stopped short of doing exactly that. Unlike DeSantis, who endorsed Trump the moment he dropped out of the primary in January, Haley held back her support and put the onus on the former president. “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. At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing.” Even before she stepped away from the microphone, Haley had her answer. “Nikki Haley got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion, despite the fact that Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to vote in Vermont, and various other Republican Primaries. Much of her money came from Radical Left Democrats, as did many of her voters, almost 50%, according to the polls. At this point, I hope she stays in the ‘race’ and fights it out until the end!” Trump posted on Truth Social, while Haley was speaking. Now comes the complicated part for Haley, the time when she has to decide what she values most — a vice presidential nod that would take her a step closer to the White House? A primetime speaking slot at the convention? Something else? Does she hold out and play the long game, betting on a Trump defeat in November that might shake the party from his control and burnish her stature as a truth-teller who was right all along? Does she have an even longer horizon in mind, one that reaches beyond 2028, recognizing that at the age of 52 she might be a viable candidate into the late 2030s or perhaps beyond? Can she build a separate platform within the party, serving as the GOP’s MAGA era emissary to the suburbs and independents? There are several national models to choose from, though both of them are cautionary tales. One of them is the Ted Cruz model. The Texas senator could have gone down in political history for his famous convention burn of Trump in 2016, when he took to the stage and dramatically refused to endorse a GOP nominee he couldn’t support in good conscience. “We deserve leaders who stand for principle, who unite us all behind shared values, who cast aside anger for love,” Cruz said, in a stunning, nationally televised rebuke that led him to be booed out of the arena. “That is the standard we should expect from everybody.” Remember that moment? No one does. Because two months later, Cruz knuckled under and endorsed Trump, forever cementing his legacy as the presidential candidate who still kissed the ring after Trump gratuitously attacked his wife and father. As a result, Cruz remains a viable future candidate for the GOP nomination, but it was a high price to pay. Another option is the Liz Cheney path — resist Trump and willfully sacrifice your future in elected office for a bigger cause. It’s a hard and lonely road, and not for the fainthearted. But Haley has always operated as an outsider, whether as a state legislator, a governor or now as a MAGA apostate, so she might be suited for it. It seems Haley herself isn’t quite sure which future to steer toward. As recently as last month, she declined to say directly whether she’d support the man she described as “unhinged” and “unfit” for office. On Sunday, she said she no longer feels bound by her pledge to the Republican National Committee to support the nominee. Wherever Haley lands, it will reveal a great deal about how she envisions the future of the party. Over the next decade, will there still be room for an internationalist wing that includes her? Will there even be room for a Ronald Reagan wing? Welcome to POLITICO Nightly. Reach out with news, tips and ideas at nightly@politico.com. Or contact tonight’s author at cmahtesian@politico.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @PoliticoCharlie.
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