Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she’d vote for Donald Trump in the November election, though she urged him to reach out to her supporters.

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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said she’d vote for Donald Trump in the November election, though she urged him to reach out to her supporters.

Emil Lippe/Getty Images

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who ended her bid for the Republican presidential run against former President Donald Trump, said at an event in Washington that she “will be voting for Trump.”

Haley’s remarks, her first on the matter since she dropped out of the race in March, came at an event at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank.

“I will be voting for Trump,” she said in a response to to a question from a moderator at an event. “Having said that … Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him.”

The remarks were not a formal endorsement of the former president — and her plea to Trump to “reach out” to her supporters was an echo of remarks she made when she withdrew from the race. President Biden has tried to court Haley’s voters in his 2024 rematch against Trump.

At the Hudson event, she was asked who she believed would do a better job in the White House on national security-related matters, Trump or President Biden. Haley smiled before responding: “As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who’s going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account.” She said while “Trump has not been perfect on these policies … Biden has been a catastrophe. So, I will be voting for Trump.”

Despite withdrawing from the race, Haley has continued to receive a not-insignificant portion of the votes in the Republican primaries, including about 16% in Pennsylvania, and nearly 13% in Wisconsin, both battleground states.