GREENVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Victory is not at hand. nikki haley.
People close to the last major Republican candidate, the former U.N. ambassador donald trump's Republican candidates for the 2024 presidential nomination are privately bracing for a crushing defeat in their home state of South Carolina's primary on Saturday. And she can't name a state where she's likely to beat Trump in the coming weeks.
But in an emotional speech Tuesday, Haley declared, “I refuse to quit.”
And in an interview, she vowed to continue at least until the battle with President Trump is over. super tuesday Even if they lose badly in their home state on Saturday, there are more than a dozen contests scheduled for March 5th.
“Ten days after South Carolina, 20 more states will vote. I mean, this is not Russia. We don't want someone to go to the polls and just get 99% of the votes.” Haley told The Associated Press. “What is Rush? Why is everyone so panicked that I have to withdraw from this race?”
In fact, some Republicans are encouraging Haley to stay in the race even if she keeps losing. If the 77-year-old former president drops out, perhaps the most volatile major party front, he could continue campaigning all the way to the Republican National Convention in July. -A runner in American history, convicted felon Or will we encounter another big scandal?
A defiant Haley repeatedly compared Trump to a Democratic president on Tuesday, as her “Make America Great Again” movement threatens to step down. joe biden And both are too old, too divisive, and too unpopular to be the only options for voters this fall.
He also pushed back when asked if there were any key states that could defeat Trump.
“Instead of asking me which states I can win, why don't you ask him how he wins a general election after spending an entire year in court?”
hayley hurdle
History shows that Haley has no chance of stopping Trump.
Never before has a Republican lost the first two primaries and then won his party's presidential nomination, as Haley did. Polls show her trailing significantly in her home state Saturday and in the 16 Super Tuesday contests that follow. And since she first announced her presidential bid in 2015, every effort by Republicans to blunt Trump's rise has failed.
Still, she leans into the fight.
Lest anyone question her commitment, Haley's campaign will conduct a campaign in Michigan on Wednesday ahead of the state's Feb. 27 primary, according to spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas. The company is spending more than $500,000 on a new television advertising campaign. At the same time, The Associated Press obtained Haley's post-South Carolina travel schedule, which includes 11 visits in seven days to Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Massachusetts.
The schedule also includes at least 10 high-ticket private fundraising events.
Indeed, despite Haley's underwhelming poll performance, a broad base of large and small donors are giving at an extraordinary pace. This reflects deep-rooted concerns among Republicans about whether Trump will be able to win support from independents and moderate voters in the general election, as well as serious concerns about leadership disruption if he returns to the White House. ing.
Eric Levine, a Republican donor who co-hosted Haley's fundraiser in New York earlier this month, said he was “going to support her all the way to the convention.” “We are not ready to fold up our tents and pray at Donald Trump's altar.”
“It's worth it for her to persist and get participants because if he stumbles, who knows what's going to happen,” Levine continued.
Levine is far from alone.
After finishing second in New Hampshire, Haley's campaign raised $5 million in fundraising efforts that included efforts in Texas, Florida, New York and California, Perez-Cubas said. Her campaign raised $11.5 million in her January alone. This is her best fundraising month ever. Her allied super PAC brought in an additional $12 million during the same period.
In fact, Haley's team actually outperformed Trump's team last month, according to federal filings released late Tuesday.
The Trump campaign raised $8.8 million in January, and its flagship super PAC raised another $7.3 million. A separate pro-Trump political action committee raised another $5 million, most of which went to the former president's legal costs.
Despite Haley's newfound economic advantage, the only lawmaker supporting her, Rep. Ralph Norman, R.S.C., where she lives and served two terms as governor. She acknowledged it might be difficult for her to win in South Carolina. .
“Of course you want to win against everyone, but I don't agree with those who say it will embarrass her or end her political career. She’s willing to take that risk,” Norman said in an interview. “I think what she's doing is brave.”
trump is not happy
In recent days, President Trump has shown moments of anger over Haley's refusal to waive her nomination.
He called her a “stupid” and “birdbrain” in social media posts over the weekend as part of a sustained personal insult campaign. 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 year-long deployment to Africa with the South Carolina Army National Guard.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley choked up while talking about her husband, a military man currently serving overseas, during a campaign event ahead of the South Carolina primary.
In a rare show of emotion, Hailey acknowledged the personal strain on her family.
“It was hard for us to say goodbye to him for the first time when he was deployed to Afghanistan. It was even harder last summer when he was deployed to Africa,” she says with misty eyes. He spoke, raising his voice.
At the beginning of her speech, she claimed that she was “not afraid of President Trump's retaliation.”
“I don't think you need to kiss the ring,” she said. “I have no interest in my own political future.”
Meanwhile, Trump campaign managers released a memo describing Haley's campaign as “broken, out of ideas, out of gas, and completely defeated by Donald Trump in every way.”
The former president, who is eager to steer the ship toward a general election showdown with Biden, is aggressively seeking to take control of the Republican National Committee, the Republican national political machine that is supposed to remain neutral in presidential primaries. Measures are being taken. President Trump last week announced plans to appoint senior campaign adviser Chris LaCivita to be the RNC's chief operating officer and his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to co-chair the committee.
All expectations are placed on the current chairman. Ronna McDaniel Trump plans to resign after winning the South Carolina primary, and party leaders will likely eventually acquiesce to his wishes. Haley's team has acknowledged privately that there is nothing it can do to stop the Trump administration from taking over.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a former Republican presidential candidate, said Tuesday during an unrelated speech in 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 put his presidential bid on hold last month after the campaign. Disappointing result in Iowa And he immediately supported Trump.
But in the interview, Haley warned the party against allowing Trump to raid the RNC's coffers to pay for legal fees while looking at short-term political prospects.
Haley said President Trump's position would fundamentally change if he were a convicted felon by Election Day, noting that Trump has 91 charges in four separate criminal cases. As he navigated his way through the felonies, he acknowledged that such an outcome was a very real possibility.
“He's going to be in court all of March, April, May and June,” Haley said. “How on earth can we win a general election when these lawsuits continue and judgments continue to be handed down?”
Meanwhile, as he departed the White House on Tuesday, Biden was asked whether he would prefer to face Haley or Trump this fall.
“Oh, I don't care,” the president said.
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Peoples reported from Kiawah Island, South Carolina. James Pollard in Columbia, South Carolina, Jill Colvin in New York, Seungmin Kim in Washington, and Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, contributed.
