Even though I am a lifelong Democrat, I can’t help but feel sorry for former Republican Gov. Nikki Haley.

People whose lives are immersed in national politics often seek to run for higher office. Considering that Ms. Haley has also been an Ambassador to the United Nations with its worldwide exposure, she has every right to think about the next step, which in this case is running for president.

Nikki Haley is a very accomplished woman. No one gave her titles because she was a political hack. Coming from an immigrant family, she has dreamed the dream of being a successful public servant.

Regrettably, her party wants to tell her what to do and when to do it. And Nikki Haley has told the party boss, former President Donald Trump, she isn’t going to quit because he has demanded it.

I personally sympathize with Nikki. In the early 1970s I was a member of the state Assembly. Every 10 years the Legislature creates a new districting map and when the process was done, I was thrown into a district with a fellow Democratic Assembly member Eli Wager.

Obviously, there was no room for two members in one district, so that meant that there might be a party primary.

The prospect of running against your party’s choice was unpleasant.

In the early days of Albany, legislators had roll-top desks and they would pack three or four Assembly members into the same room. Mr. Wager’s desk was 10 feet from mine. My two daughters knew him so well that they called him “Uncle Eli.”

In the weeks following my declaration to run a primary, countless numbers of people approached me and urged me to withdraw. Some told me I should be loyal to the party while others told me I would have other chances to run for public office and I should wait for that opportunity.

In my case, the story had a happy ending. I won a very tough primary and had a chance to rise in the leadership ranks.

Based on simple odds, Nikki Haley is not going to be the Republican candidate for president, absent some tsunami, which could always happen.

She has the absolute right to stay in the race until she has no choice but to step down. In the case of my defeated primary opponent, with my help, he secured an appointment to a state commission and eventually went on to have a distinguished judicial career.

Unlike most political offices, when you run for president and lose, the party doesn’t reward you with a consolation prize. If and when Nikki steps down, she will be treated as a pariah of the likes of Liz Chaney.

No party boss is going to offer her a cabinet post. She will be ostracized and marginalized because she had the chutzpah to run against Donald Trump.

Smart women have no place in today’s national party. There may be one or two stars in the Senate, but overall the Republican Party today is still male-dominated.

There is another reason why Nikki Haley should stay in the race. She knows Donald Trump.

Having worked for him she talks with authority about him and what he is really like. She has seen him in action and is telling the world outside South Carolina, that if he returns to office, he will destroy the very fabric that made America great.

Other than New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, she is the last of the voices willing to tell America what a second Trump term would be like.

As a Democrat, there is no doubt that most of my readers will say that my thoughts on Nikki Haley come with political bias. But having been a party maverick in my lifetime, I can understand what Nikki Haley is experiencing.

The road ahead will be a tough one and there will be no prize for quitting, at the behest of the party hacks.

She is fighting to educate America on what another Trump presidency would look like and she is performing a public service to our nation.

Good luck Nikki. You will need that and a lot more when the crusade is over.