Haley gets 77K votes in Georgia GOP primary after dropping out of race

Nikki Haley received more than 77,000 votes in Georgia’s Republican primary race Tuesday despite dropping out of the race six days prior.

The former South Carolina governor secured 77,761 votes — about 13.2 percent of the vote — in Georgia’s GOP presidential primary contest, according to Decision Desk HQ. Haley had dropped out of the race after Super Tuesday last week, having lost to former President Trump in all but two early primary races.

Trump still handily won the Georgia primary Tuesday night with about 84.5 percent of the vote. But his level of support among moderates will likely be a key factor in the general election.

Trump lost Georgia in the 2020 elections to now-President Biden by less than a quarter of a percentage point. According to The Hill/Decision Desk HQ’s polling average, Trump is leading Biden in Georgia by about 7.4 percentage points. 

Trump’s wins Tuesday secured him enough votes to get the GOP nomination for president. Biden also became the Democrat Party’s presumptive nominee after earning enough delegates in Tuesday’s primaries.

Trump celebrated becoming the presumptive nominee on social media. 

“It’s your favorite president speaking to you on a really great day of victory,” Trump said in a video his campaign posted to X, formerly known as Twitter. “One week ago, we had something called Super Tuesday and it was indeed super, because we won at numbers at nobody has ever seen before, records in virtually every state.”