Haley’s exit from the GOP race pushes off — again — the day Americans could elect a woman president

WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman ascends toward the heights of American politics, with the nation’s top elected office — the presidency — looming far out of reach. A man at the bottom predicts, unhelpfully: “You’ll never make it, sister!”

Asked the Chicago Daily Tribune, in a 1922 editorial cartoon published two years after women won the right to vote: “How high will she go?”

More than a century later, that question remains stubbornly unanswered. Nikki Haley’s suspension Wednesday of her campaign for the GOP presidential nomination makes her the latest in a long line of women with presidential hopes to crash against the monolith of a man — in this case, Republican Donald Trump — in a nation founded on the concepts of equality and opportunity for all.

Without endorsing Trump, Haley withdrew from the contest with a shoutout to the women and girls who supported her, and by quoting a woman who did make it to the top in a democracy — Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister.

“‘Never just follow the crowd,” Haley said, suggesting she’ll become a private citizen, for now. “Always make up your own mind.”

What to know today about Super Tuesday elections

• Nikki Haley, Trump’s major GOP challenger, suspends her campaign after being soundly defeated across the country.
• Not-so-Super Tuesday? What the primary elections can tell us about November.
• The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information for elections. See the results for elections across the U.S. here.

A PRECEDENT CONTINUES, WHETHER PEOPLE LIKE IT OR NOT

Polls show most Americans do not necessarily oppose electing a woman president, hypothetically. And this year, Haley notched some history: She’s the first woman to win a Republican presidential primary, in the