GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — There are not any wins on the horizon for Nikki Haley.
These near the previous United Nations ambassador, the final main Republican candidate standing in Donald Trump’s path to the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, are privately bracing for a blowout loss in her house state’s main election in South Carolina on Saturday. And so they can’t identify a state the place she is prone to beat Trump within the coming weeks.
However in an emotional tackle on Tuesday, Haley declared, “I refuse to stop.”
And in an interview, she vowed to remain within the battle in opposition to Trump at the least till after Super Tuesday’s slate of greater than a dozen contests on March 5 — even when she suffers an enormous loss in her house state Saturday.
“Ten days after South Carolina, one other 20 states vote. I imply, this isn’t Russia. We don’t need somebody to go in and simply get 99% of the vote,” Haley advised The Related Press. “What’s the rush? Why is all people so panicked about me having to get out of this race?”
In truth, some Republicans are encouraging Haley to remain within the marketing campaign even when she continues to lose — probably all the best way to the Republican Nationwide Conference in July within the occasion the 77-year-old former president, maybe essentially the most risky main occasion front-runner in U.S. historical past, turns into a convicted felon or stumbles into one other main scandal.
As Trump’s “Make America Nice Once more” motion presses for her exit, a defiant Haley on Tuesday repeatedly likened Trump to Democratic President Joe Biden —and each as too outdated, too divisive and too unpopular to be the one choices for voters this fall.
She additionally pushed again when requested if there may be any main state the place she will defeat Trump.
“As a substitute of asking me what states I am gonna win, why do not we ask how he is gonna win a common election after spending a full yr in a courtroom?”
Historical past would counsel Haley has no likelihood of stopping Trump.
By no means earlier than has a Republican misplaced even the primary two main contests, as Haley has by a mean of 21 factors, and gone on to win the occasion’s presidential nomination. Polls counsel she is a serious underdog in her house state on Saturday and within the 16 Tremendous Tuesday contests to comply with. And since he introduced his first presidential bid in 2015, each effort by a Republican to blunt Trump’s rise has failed.
But she is leaning into the battle.
Lest anybody query her dedication, Haley’s marketing campaign is spending greater than $500,000 on a brand new tv promoting marketing campaign set to start operating Wednesday in Michigan forward of the state’s Feb. 27 main, based on spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas. On the similar time, the AP has obtained Haley’s post-South Carolina journey schedule that options 11 separate stops in seven days throughout Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Massachusetts.
The schedule additionally consists of at the least 10 high-dollar personal fundraising occasions.
Certainly, Haley’s expansive base of big- and small-dollar donors is donating at a unprecedented tempo regardless of her underwhelming efficiency on the polls. That is a mirrored image of persistent Republican fears about Trump’s skill to win over independents and average voters within the common election and critical considerations about his turbulent management ought to he return to the White Home.
“I’m going to assist her as much as the conference,” mentioned Republican donor Eric Levine, who co-hosted a New York fundraiser for Haley earlier this month. “We’re not ready to fold our tents and pray on the altar of Donald Trump.”
“There’s worth in her sticking in and gathering delegates, as a result of if and when he stumbles,” Levine continued, “who is aware of what occurs.”
Levine is way from alone.
Haley’s marketing campaign raised $5 million in a fundraising swing after her second-place end in New Hampshire that included stops in Texas, Florida, New York, and California, Perez-Cubas mentioned. Her marketing campaign raised $16.5 million in January alone — her finest fundraising month ever.
The lone member of Congress who has endorsed Haley, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., acknowledged that it could be troublesome to win South Carolina, a state the place she lives and served two phrases as governor.
“Clearly, you need to win all of them, however for individuals who say it’s going to embarrass her, or finish her political profession, I disagree. She’s keen to take that danger,” Norman mentioned in an interview. “I believe it’s a brave factor she’s doing.”
Shifting ahead, Haley’s crew is very targeted on a number of Tremendous Tuesday states with open or semi-open Republican primaries that enable a broader assortment of voters to take part — particularly independents and moderates — as a substitute of simply hardcore conservatives.
Trump, in latest days, has proven flashes of fury in response to Haley’s refusal to cede the nomination.
He referred to as her “silly” and “birdbrain” in a social media submit over the weekend as a part of a sustained marketing campaign of non-public insults. Some main voters mentioned Trump crossed the road earlier within the month when he highlighted the absence of Haley’s husband, Michael, who’s within the midst of a yearlong stint with the South Carolina Military Nationwide Guard to Africa.
In a uncommon present of emotion, Haley acknowledged the private toll on her household.
“It was exhausting for us to say goodbye to him the primary time when he deployed to Afghanistan. It was even tougher final summer time when he deployed to Africa,” she mentioned with glassy eyes, her voice cracking.
Earlier within the speech, she insisted that she has “no worry of Trump’s retribution.”
“I really feel no must kiss the ring,” she mentioned. “My very own political future is of zero concern.”
Forward of the speech, Trump’s marketing campaign launched a memo predicting that Haley could be compelled out of the race after dropping her house state Saturday.
“The true ‘State’ of Nikki Haley’s marketing campaign?” Trump’s marketing campaign chiefs wrote. “Damaged down, out of concepts, out of gasoline, and utterly outperformed by each measure, by Donald Trump.”
Desperate to pivot towards a common election matchup in opposition to Biden, the Republican former president can be taking aggressive steps to imagine management of the Republican Nationwide Committee, the GOP’s nationwide political machine, which is meant to remain impartial in presidential main elections. Final week, Trump introduced plans to put in his marketing campaign’s senior adviser Chris LaCivita, as RNC’s chief working officer and daughter-in-law Lara Trump because the committee’s co-chair.
And there may be each expectation that present Chair Ronna McDaniel will step down after Trump wins South Carolina’s main and occasion officers will finally acquiesce to Trump’s needs. Privately, Haley’s crew concedes there may be nothing it may possibly do to cease the Trump takeover.
Former Republican presidential contender Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, mentioned it was time for the occasion to unite behind Trump throughout an unrelated South Carolina look on Tuesday.
“So far as I’m involved, the first’s over,” mentioned DeSantis, who suspended his presidential bid final month after a disappointing finish in Iowa and rapidly endorsed Trump. “As Republicans, the RNC is principally broke. We have to get our act collectively and begin specializing in having the sources we have to carry a message in opposition to Biden, to prove voters.”
In her interview, nevertheless, Haley warned her occasion in opposition to letting Trump raid the RNC’s coffers to pay for his authorized charges whereas taking a short-term view of his political prospects.
Trump’s standing will basically change if he’s a convicted felon earlier than Election Day, Haley mentioned, acknowledging that such an end result is a really actual chance as Trump navigates 91 felony prices throughout 4 separate legal circumstances.
“Persons are not wanting six months down the street when these courtroom circumstances have taken place,” Haley mentioned. “He’s going to be in a courtroom all of March, April, Might and June. How on the planet do you win a common election when these circumstances preserve going and the judgments preserve coming?”
In the meantime, Biden was requested as he departed the White Home on Tuesday whether or not he most popular to go up in opposition to Haley or Trump this fall.
“Oh, I don’t care,” the president mentioned.
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Peoples reported from Kiawah Island, South Carolina. AP writers James Pollard in Columbia, South Carolina, Seung Min Kim in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.
