Super Tuesday was bad for Haley. But the results expose Trump weaknesses as well

Nikki Haley’s campaign was left in the dust by Donald Trump’s on Tuesday night in the kind of showing that could severely weaken her ability to press on towards the GOP convention in July.

The former governor of South Carolina was only projected to win one state, Vermont, on Tuesday as her opponent cleaned up with victories in more than a dozen others likely to include the two largest prizes of the night: California and Texas. Should Ms Haley prevail over the former president in the northeast, it will be with a slim margin of victory eclipsed by the wide gulfs separating her from Mr Trump in every other state.

Her opponent is now in a clear position to secure enough delegates to win the nomination outright within a matter of weeks if not days. Ms Haley has yet to issue a statement about the results of the night; she had previously vowed to remain in the race through Tuesday night but could see her presidential hopes come to an end very soon. A total of 865 Republican delegates were at stake today, with Mr Trump set to win the lion’s share; he needs 1,215 to clinch the nomination, and walked into Tuesday with more than 200.

Super Tuesday reasonably couldn’t have gone much worse for Ms Haley. She had campaigned in Virginia, North Carolina, Massachusetts and a handful of other states with big plans to win them from Mr Trump; she is not likely to come within single digits of Mr Trump in a single one, excluding Vermont. Her lack of support from conservative Republican voters continues to cast a long shadow on her chances of winning the nomination, especially including the large segment of the party that still believes conspiracies about the 2020 election.

Mr Trump, meanwhile, continues to show enough of a weakness with