Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, on Tuesday, reaffirmed her commitment to continue her campaign for the White House, in a head-to-head contest against former President Donald Trump. This announcement comes just five days before the South Carolina Primary.
“Some of you—perhaps a few of you in the media—came here today to see if I’m dropping out of the race. Well, I’m not. Far from it,” Haley declared in a speech in Greenville.
Haley pledged to remain in the race, promising to compete beyond the South Carolina primary and through Super Tuesday on March 5.
“That’s why I refuse to quit. South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,” she asserted. “I’m campaigning every day, until the last person votes, because I believe in a better America and a brighter future for our kids.”
Despite her determination, Haley faces a significant challenge in her bid for the GOP nomination. Trump has won every delegate contest so far and holds a substantial lead over Haley in her home state, leading many to question the viability of her campaign.
Recent polls consistently show Haley trailing Trump in South Carolina by a considerable margin. According to the latest CBS/YouGov survey, Trump leads Haley among likely voters in South Carolina’s upcoming Republican primary, 65% to 30%. These results are consistent with previous Monmouth University-Washington Post polling.
Haley justified her decision to stay in the race by highlighting her belief that some politicians who publicly support Trump “privately dread him.”
“Look, I get it. In politics, the herd mentality is enormously strong. A lot of Republican politicians have surrendered to it… Of course, many of the same politicians who now publicly embrace Trump privately dread him. They know what a disaster he’s been and will continue to be for our party. They’re just too afraid to say it out loud,” Haley stated.
However, Haley did not provide a clear strategy for securing enough delegates to win the nomination. Instead, she emphasized the importance of democratic processes and the right of Americans to have their voices heard.
“They deserve a real choice, not a Soviet-style election where there’s only one candidate and he gets 99% of the vote. We don’t anoint kings in this country. We have elections. And Donald Trump, of all people, should know we don’t rig elections!,” she said.
The Trump campaign responded to Haley’s speech by releasing a memo arguing that their calculations show Trump will secure the necessary number of delegates to become the Republican nominee by March 19 at the latest. The memo suggested that Haley’s campaign was “out of gas.”
“The true ‘state’ of Nikki Haley’s campaign? Broken down, out of ideas, out of gas, and completely outperformed by every measure, by Donald Trump,” Trump campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in the memo.
Trump has been in South Carolina for a single event since the New Hampshire primary and he will be back in the state on Tuesday night for a town hall with Fox News.
Positioning herself as the best alternative to both President Joe Biden and Trump, Haley painted both leaders as ”two old men who are only getting older,” and accused them both of polarizing the country.
“The truth is, Americans already know what Joe Biden and Donald Trump will do. But we’re just as concerned with who they are. They’re dividers at a time when America desperately, urgently, needs a uniter,” Haley said as she continued to offer a message of unity.
“In the America I know and love, we disagree strongly, but we do it without hating each other, and we still have a shared national purpose. In the America I know and love, we respect freedom and the rule of law, we refuse to use the awesome power of big government to punish those we dislike, and we recognize that America has done more good for more people than any country in the world.”
Report contributed by CNN’s Kate Sullivan.