Nikki Haley is not the first presidential candidate to lose her home state.
Recent candidates, including Sens. Marco Rubio and Elizabeth Warren, have suffered similar fates.
Not everyone who suffers such a loss is able to restart their career afterwards.
You can't always go home.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley learned this the hard way after losing the South Carolina Republican presidential primary.
This doesn't have to be the end. While some former presidential candidates have dropped out before suffering a similar fate, a few have accepted the negative headlines and continued their careers. One of them, George H.W. Bush, lost his adopted home state of Texas and later won the presidency itself. However, based on recent comments from both sides, it seems highly unlikely that Ms. Haley will join President Trump.
Still, Hailey vowed earlier this week to keep going no matter what.
Trump knows some of her pain, but he should have at least become the nominee of a major party before suffering a defeat like this. Trump, a native New Yorker in her own right, lost the Empire State in both 2016 and 2020. Many of the failed major party candidates, including Sen. Mitt Romney, have lost their home state, their current state, or both. South Dakota Sen. George McGovern is a modern-day loner. During the historic upheaval of 1972, McGovern was responsible for only Washington, DC and Massachusetts.
However, for our purposes, we are only interested in local state defeats in presidential primaries. The Washington Post compiled a list of these failures since 1980, noting how devastating these losses were for the campaign.
Here's a look at the future Haley might find herself in after chasing the president.
George H.W. Bush
Year: 1980
context: At the time, Mr. Bush was putting together a lengthy resume. He has already served two terms in Congress, served as ambassador to the United Nations under President Richard Nixon, led the Republican Party, and served as CIA director under President Gerald Ford.
The future president started the 1980 primary and caucus season with a shock victory in Iowa, defeating former California Gov. Ronald Reagan, who was active in the entertainment industry as the state's sports broadcaster. I defeated it by a narrow margin. Bush's momentum didn't last long. Reagan began to rattle off victories and began collecting delegates in the South and Midwest. The New York Times article was not so harsh about Bush's losses in the state that his son George W. would eventually lead, but about Bush's strong performance in the Houston area, which he represented in Congress. He pointed out that. (Bush also won Massachusetts, where he was actually born, and Connecticut, where he grew up, during the 1980 cycle.)
Less than a month after campaigning in Texas, Bush withdrew from the race. His final consolation prize was the vice presidentship. He is the most recent vice president to immediately succeed the president they served.
John Anderson
Year: 1980
context: Mr. Anderson, a longtime member of the Illinois House of Representatives, was considered a more moderate candidate in the 1980 race. He narrowly lost in the early rounds to Mr. Bush in Massachusetts and to Mr. Reagan in Vermont. Mr. Anderson entered the Illinois primary with more momentum than Mr. Reagan, who was also born in the state but built his political career far away in California.
Reagan won, and a little more than a month later Anderson withdrew from the race to run as an independent.
Anderson spent the years after the race as a visiting professor at universities across the country, worked with various nonprofit organizations, and remained involved in third-party politics.
Pat Robertson
Year: 1988
As a televangelist and founder of a private Christian college in Virginia, Roberston had important connections with the then-growing Christian Right. He competed in the 1988 primaries and caucuses, finishing second in Iowa and Minnesota, but his early momentum quickly dissipated.
Although the Virginia pageant was not strictly significant and delegates were awarded through caucuses, Mr. Robertson fell to third place in the beauty pageant behind Mr. Bush and Sen. Bob Dole of Kansas. Unlike the other players on the list, Robertson held out longer. His supporters acted shrewdly and carried him to victory in the Washington caucuses on Super Tuesday, the same night as the Virginia primary. In mid-May, with little left in the race, he endorsed Mr. Bush.
After the race, Roberston returned to the Christian Broadcasting Network and continued his involvement with the Religious Right. He is credited with helping Newt Gingrich and House Republicans flip the chamber in 1994, ending a decades-long Democratic grip on power.
jerry brown
Year: 1992
Few people would better associate former California Governor Jerry Brown, the longest-serving governor in the state's history.As a new governor, Mr. Brown made some late achievements.He achieved a close victory over then-former Georgia Governor Jimmy Carter. Brown's victory in his home state was one of the highlights of the race. In 1980, then-President Carter's second attempt virtually failed.
Brown began his third presidential campaign in 1992, but quickly fell behind then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton. As it became clear that Mr. Clinton would secure his nomination, Mr. Brown faced considerable pressure to withdraw him. Instead, Brown remained in the race to the end. Mr. Clinton campaigned hard in California and ultimately won the state, clinching his nomination.
Brown only withdrew during the Democratic National Convention, but would restart his political career as mayor of Oakland. He then became state attorney general and finally returned to the governor's mansion.
Dennis Kucinich
Year: 2004
Mr. Kucinich had established himself after decades as a member of Congress and as mayor of Cincinnati. A staunch liberal, he supported many positions that were still far outside the Democratic mainstream, including universal health care, an end to the Iraq war, and marriage equality.
Despite never winning a contest, Kucinich remained in the race. John Kerry will win his party's nomination. Kelly defeated the rest of the field, including Ohio State, where Kucinich finished third on Super Tuesday.
Kucinich made a second run for president four years later, but quickly resigned. He faced increasingly difficult congressional races until his district lost in 2010 and he was ultimately defeated by fellow incumbent Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur. Since then, he has run unsuccessfully for governor of Ohio and mayor of Cleveland. Last year, he led the long-running Democratic presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic, but left the race shortly after Kennedy announced he would run as an independent candidate. Kucinich is currently seeking a return to Congress as an independent.
ron paul
Year: 2008
Ron Paul spent decades in Washington cultivating a reputation as a Congressional iconoclast, earning him the nickname “Dr. No.”
The 2008 Republican presidential race was vast and chaotic, but Paul remained in the race even though it was clear that Arizona Sen. John McCain would win. Paul gained national attention for his spectacular online fundraising campaign with the so-called “Moneybomb.” Paul remained in the race after finishing third in Texas.
After the 2008 contest, Paul ran again four years later. As he did in 2008, he remained in the race after losing Texas, but this time he finished second. Paul left Congress in 2013. Then, during Young Paul's campaign in 2016, he campaigned for his son Sen. Rand Paul in Kentucky. He also founded a think tank and continues to comment on the news.
marco rubio
Year: 2016
Sen. Marco Rubio entered the 2016 campaign with perhaps the most hype on this list. The Tea Party upstart was once declared the Republican Party's “savior” because of his career and rapid rise.
Like many others in the vast field, Rubio has been slow to criticize Donald Trump even as the businessman and reality TV star has risen to the forefront of the field. By the time the Florida primary began on what was dubbed “Super Tuesday II,” Trump's main competitor had become Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. By the end of the night, it was abundantly clear how the future president perceived the nomination.
Rubio would later reverse his decision not to seek re-election to the Senate. His flip helped Republicans maintain a majority in the chamber.
elizabeth warren
Year: 2020
Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts refused to embrace a progressive draft movement in 2016, instead adopting what Sen. Bernie Sanders offered in what became a surprisingly strong challenge to then-former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. I gave up my seat. Warren entered the 2020 cycle with high hopes and hoped to capitalize on early announcements that would test presidential power.
Her strong early polling briefly kept her as the front-runner, but disappointing results in the early states showed how far she had fallen. On Super Tuesday, she fell to third place in her home state. Warren withdrew from the race soon after. She was reportedly considered to be Biden's vice president.
She is currently running for re-election to a third term in the Senate.