Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) predicted on Wednesday that the GOP primary race will effectively “end” in South Carolina after former President Donald Trump wins that primary, prompting his main primary challenger, Nikki Haley, to drop out, The Hill reported.
Pointing to Trump’s victory on Tuesday in New Hampshire, where he beat Haley by nearly 11 points, Cruz said it is “clear” Trump will be the eventual GOP presidential nominee.
“New Hampshire was Nikki’s last stance. She put everything in, she had every moderate, every ‘never Trumper’ billionaire behind her and she lost. She lost by 11 points,” Cruz was quoted as having said during an interview on Fox News. “Trump…won decisively in New Hampshire. He is the nominee.”
The Texas senator predicted Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, would remain in the race “because she’s got money.”
“She’s got lots of people writing her checks that hate Donald Trump, but this race will end in South Carolina,” Cruz said. “Trump’s gonna win, he’s not just gonna win by a little bit. He’s gonna win by double digits, it could be a 30-point victory like Iowa.”
“My prediction right now is Nikki will drop out 18 hours after South Carolina. After that, you cannot go on,” he added.
Haley made clear, after her loss on Tuesday, that she has no intention of dropping out of the race and made note of the South Carolina primary, where she served as Governor from 2011 to 2017.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go, and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina,” she declared.
Trump later took jabs at Haley as he celebrated his victory in New Hampshire, telling supporters the she "had a very bad night."
"She did very poorly actually," he said. "The governor said she's going to win, she's going to win, she's going to win. Then she failed badly."
Cruz endorsed Trump’s White House bid earlier this month following Trump’s win in the Iowa caucuses, in which the former President led his rivals by nearly 30 points.
Cruz had also endorsed Trump in the 2020 election, and also in 2016 after dropping his own presidential bid during the primaries.
Trump also received an endorsement on Sunday from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, as DeSantis dropped out of the Republican race in the wake of a poor showing in Iowa.