Haley Makes an Announcement About Her Participation in Future Debates

Leah Barkoukis | January 16, 2024 9:30 AM

Former South Carolina governor and GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley announced Tuesday morning that she will not participate in the upcoming Republican primary debates in New Hampshire.

“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” she wrote on X. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”

We’ve had five great debates in this campaign. Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) January 16, 2024

The two debates in the Granite State were set for Thursday and Saturday.

Haley’s announcement came after she finished third in Iowa with 19.1 percent of the vote compared to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who received 21.2 percent of the vote. At 51 percent, former President Donald Trump dominated with a historic margin of victory.

Despite her placement, the former US ambassador to UN declared the race was now between her and Trump.

"[T]onight Iowa did what Iowa always does so well. The pundits will analyze the results from every angle. We get that. But when you look at how we're doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina and beyond, I can safely say tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race," Haley said.

"We've looked at it every which way and I think it is true that we did not achieve the surprise that we wanted to deliver tonight and I think that that's just a hard fact we're going to have to accept as the campaign," Ramaswamy said. "There is no path for me to be the next president absent things that we don't to see happening in this country.”

Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, meanwhile, said he will "reevaluate" his campaign after finishing sixth in Iowa.