GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — There are no wins on the horizon Nikki Haley.
People close to the former United Nations ambassador are the latest Republican nominee to run It's Donald Trump The path for the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee is personally preparing for an embarrassing defeat in his home state's primary election in South Carolina on Saturday. They can't name a single state where he can defeat Trump in the coming weeks.
But in an emotional speech Tuesday, Haley declared, “I refuse to quit.”
And in an interview, he vowed to stay at least until then in the fight against Trump Super Tuesday More than ten matches on March 5 — even though she suffered a big loss Saturday in her home state.
Ten days after South Carolina, 20 other states vote. I mean, it's not Russia. We don't want somebody to go in and get 99% of the vote,” Haley told The Associated Press. “What's the rush? Why is everyone so afraid that I should drop out of this race?
In fact, some Republicans are encouraging Haley to stay on the campaign trail despite continued losses — the 77-year-old former president could head to the Republican National Convention in July in perhaps the most volatile major-party primary event. -runner in American history, became A convicted felon Or stumbles into another big scandal.
A protester on Tuesday repeatedly compared Haley Trump to the Democratic president as Trump's “Make America Great Again” movement pressed for his ouster. Joe Biden -Both are too old, too divisive and too unpopular to be the only option for voters this fall.
Asked if there was any primary state in which Trump could be defeated, he demurred.
“Instead of asking me which states I'm going to win, why not ask him how he's going to win the general election after spending a year in the courtroom?”
Hayley's Barriers
History says Haley has no chance of stopping Trump.
With an average score of 21 points, Hawley has never lost the first two Republican primaries and won the party's presidential nomination. Polls suggest he is a big underdog in his home state on Saturday and in the 16 Super Tuesday contests that follow. Since he announced his first presidential bid in 2015, every Republican effort to blunt Trump's rise has failed.
Yet she leans into the fight.
Lest anyone question her commitment, Hawley's campaign is spending more than $500,000 on a new television ad campaign that will begin running Wednesday in Michigan ahead of the state's Feb. 27 primary, spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubaz said. Meanwhile, the AP has obtained Haley's post-South Carolina travel schedule, which includes 11 separate stops over seven days across Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Washington, DC, North Carolina and Massachusetts.
The table also includes at least 10 high-dollar private fundraising events.
Indeed, Haley's extensive base of big- and small-dollar donors has been donating at an extraordinary pace despite her underperformance in the polls. It's a reflection of Republicans' ongoing fears about Trump's ability to win over independents and moderate voters in the general election.
“I'm going to support her for the convention,” said Republican donor Eric Levine, who hosted a New York fundraiser for Haley earlier this month. “We are not ready to fold our tents and pray at the altar of Donald Trump.”
“There's value in her sticking around and gathering reps, because if he falters, who knows what could happen,” Levine continued.
Levine is far from alone.
Haley's campaign raised $5 million in a fundraising swing after finishing second in New Hampshire that included stops in Texas, Florida, New York and California, Perez-Cubas said. His campaign raised $11.5 million in January alone — his best fundraising month yet. His coalition super PAC brought in another $12 million during the same period.
In fact, according to federal filings released late Tuesday, Haley's team actually outperformed Trump's last month.
Trump's campaign raised $8.8 million in January, and his flagship super PAC took in another $7.3 million. A separate pro-Trump political action group brought in another $5 million, but spent a large portion on the former president's legal fees.
Even with Haley's new financial advantage, the lone member of Congress who supported Haley, Rep. Ralph Norman, R.S.C., admitted it might be difficult for him to win his home state of South Carolina, where he served two terms as governor. .
“Obviously, you want to win over everybody, but for those who say it's going to embarrass her, or end her political career, I disagree. She's willing to take that risk,” Norman said in an interview. “I think it's a brave thing for her to do. “
Trump is not happy
Trump, in recent days, has expressed anger in response to Haley's refusal to give up the nomination.
He called her “stupid” and “bird-brained” in a social media post over the weekend as part of a continuing campaign of personal insults. Some primary voters said Trump crossed a line earlier this month when he highlighted the absence of Haley's husband, Michael, who is on a yearlong sabbatical in Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley choked up while talking about her husband, who is currently serving in the military overseas, during a campaign event ahead of the South Carolina primary.
In a rare show of emotion, Haley acknowledged her family's personal toll.
“It was hard for us to say goodbye to him the first time when he was deployed to Afghanistan. It was even harder when he went to Africa last summer,” she said, glassy-eyed, her voice breaking.
Earlier in the speech, he insisted he had “no fear of Trump's retaliation.”
“I don't need to kiss the ring,” he said. “My own political future is unconcerned.”
Meanwhile, Trump's campaign leaders released a memo describing Haley's campaign as “broken, out of ideas, and completely out-performed by every measure of Donald Trump”.
Eager to move toward a general election race against Biden, the former president is taking aggressive steps to seize control of the Republican National Committee, which should remain neutral in presidential primaries. Last week, Trump announced plans to appoint senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita as the RNC's chief operating officer and daughter-in-law Laura Trump as co-chair of the committee.
There is anticipation as to who the current leader will be Rhona McDaniel He will step down after Trump wins South Carolina's primary and party executives will ultimately comply with Trump's wishes. Haley's team admits that privately, there is nothing she can do to stop a Trump takeover.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former Republican presidential contender, said on Tuesday in unrelated South Carolina that it was time for the party to unite behind Trump.
“As far as I'm concerned, the primary is over,” said DeSantis, who suspended his presidential bid last month. Disappointing result in Iowa and quickly endorsed Trump.
In her interview, however, Haley took a short-term view of her political prospects, warning her party against letting Trump raid the RNC's coffers to pay her legal fees.
Haley said Trump's standing would fundamentally change if he were convicted before Election Day, acknowledging that such an outcome was a very real possibility because Trump is leading 91 felony charges in four separate criminal cases.
“He's going to be in the courtroom throughout March, April, May and June,” Haley said. “How in the world are you going to win a general election when these lawsuits keep coming and the verdicts keep coming?”
Meanwhile, Biden, who left the White House on Tuesday, was asked if he would prefer to go against Haley or Trump this fall.
“Oh, I don't care,” the president said.
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People reported from Kiawah Island, South Carolina. AP writers James Pollard in Columbia, South Carolina, Jill Colvin in New York, Seung Min Kim in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa contributed.
