Ms. Haley quickly learned that the role of last woman standing against Mr. Trump meant serving as the last target for a party racing to line up behind the former president. Two former rivals in the race Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, and Mr. DeSantis both endorsed the former president. The head of the party's Senate campaign arm proclaimed Mr. Trump to be the presumptive nominee. And Mr. Trump's campaign strategists vowed that she would be absolutely embarrassed and demolished in her home state of South Carolina, the next big prize on the calendar.
Ms. Haley's supporters in the state said they were feeling that pressure. Some worried aloud that she had pulled punches with Mr. Trump for so long that her chances of prevailing had been compromised, and suggested that total surrender (which would come in the form of an endorsement of Mr. Trump) was Mr. Haley's safest move. It's a personal decision the governor and her husband are going to have to make, said Phyllis Woods, a New Hampshire state representative from Dover who had supported Mr. DeSantis.
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