By STEVE PEOPLES (AP National Political Writer)
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — Nikki Haley’s staff is bracing for a house state embarrassment in South Carolina’s Republican presidential main on Saturday. Conventional knowledge suggests she’ll be compelled to drop out. But that won’t apply in 2024.
Ahead of a serious speech on Tuesday, Haley advised The Associated Press that she’s staying within the race it doesn’t matter what no less than till after one other 20 states vote by Super Tuesday on March 5. That’s whilst Donald Trump’s MAGA motion is livid that she’s refusing to drop out. After all, she’s the final main candidate standing in his path to the nomination.
The Associated Press spoke with Haley and several other senior marketing campaign officers and donors about her technique forward of the massive speech. Here are some takeaways about how and why she plans to remain within the race:
SHE’S NOT QUITTING
Haley is aware of there may be hypothesis she might drop out on Tuesday. But she advised The Associated Press that she’s not going anyplace till no less than after Super Tuesday. Yes, that’s even when she’s blown out by Donald Trump in her residence state in Saturday’s South Carolina main.
“Ten days after South Carolina, another 20 states vote. I mean, this isn’t Russia. We don’t want someone to go in and just get 99% of the vote,” Haley mentioned. “What is the rush? Why is everybody so panicked about me having to get out of this race?”
In case you don’t imagine her, her staff supplied new particulars about her plans post-South Carolina.
She’s spending greater than $500,000 on a brand new tv promoting marketing campaign set to start operating Wednesday in Michigan. Her post-South Carolina journey schedule options 11 separate stops in seven days throughout Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Massachusetts.
The schedule additionally contains no less than 10 high-dollar personal fundraising occasions.
THE LOSSES MAY PILE UP
Just don’t ask Haley which main state she’s going to win.
It’s a good query for somebody who says she has a authentic path to successful the Republican president nomination. But Haley and her staff aren’t keen to reply that query particularly. Or perhaps they’ll’t. That’s as a result of polls counsel she’s a serious underdog in just about each state — even the state the place she lives and was elected twice as governor — given Trump’s grip on the Republican Party.
Remember, Republican main elections are sometimes determined by the social gathering’s most energized partisans — not the broader swath of moderates and independents which are extra influential typically elections.
Haley had a fiery reply when pressed on her particular prospects for victory throughout the AP interview.
“Instead of asking me what states I’m gonna win, why don’t we ask how he’s gonna win a general election after spending a full year in a courtroom?” she mentioned.
Still, Haley’s staff says there are a number of states the place she might be aggressive with Trump — particularly these with open or semi-open primaries that enables a broader assortment of voters to take part as an alternative of simply hardcore Republicans.
By the way in which, one in all them is South Carolina, which permits voters to take part in whichever presidential main they need — so long as they solely vote as soon as.
MONEY IS NOT A PROBLEM
Stop us if you happen to’ve heard this earlier than, however most presidential candidates don’t drop out after they lose; they drop out after they run out of cash. The situations are associated, after all. Who needs to waste cash on a loser?
But someway, even because the losses start to pile up, Haley is elevating cash on the strongest charge of her political profession.
Traditional Republican donors like Eric Levine, who hosted a New York fundraiser for Haley earlier this month, mentioned he’s betting huge that Haley will someway discover a gap if she stays affected person given Trump’s authorized baggage and propensity for main gaffes and scandal.
There’s additionally a extra emotional attraction. Many within the social gathering simply aren’t able to give up to Trump’s MAGA politics even when the maths is on his facet.
Or as Levine places it, “We’re not prepared to fold our tents and pray at the altar of Donald Trump.”
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, in keeping with marketing campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas. Her marketing campaign raised $16.5 million in January alone — her greatest fundraising month ever. She raised one other $1 million final week within the 24 hours after Trump attacked her husband, a navy serviceman at the moment serving abroad.
LEANING INTO TRUMP LEGAL ISSUES
As Trump calls Haley names like “stupid” and “birdbrain,” Haley is sharpening her give attention to the Republican former president’s authorized troubles.
Again and once more, she attacked Trump for spending as a lot — or extra — time within the courtroom as on the marketing campaign path. She predicted that Trump’s political standing would change dramatically if he’s a convicted felon earlier than Election Day, whereas worrying aloud that the Republican National Committee would turn out to be a private “piggy bank” for his authorized charges.
“People are not looking six months down the road when these court cases have taken place,” Haley mentioned. “He’s going to be in a courtroom all of March, April, May and June. How in the world do you win a general election when these cases keep going and the judgments keep coming?”
And she didn’t precisely agree with Trump that each one of many 91 felony expenses in opposition to him are all politically motivated.
“Some, I think, are very politically motivated. Some, he’s going to have to defend himself,” she mentioned in drawing a transparent distinction.
LONG TERM OUTLOOK HAZY
Some Republicans need Haley to remain within the race all the way in which to the social gathering’s July nationwide conference. But Haley mentioned she isn’t but pondering a lot about her technique past Super Tuesday. She additionally declined to say whether or not she’d drop out of the race if and when Trump hit the 50% delegate threshold to formally turn out to be the social gathering’s presumptive nominee.
At the present charge, that’s prone to occur someday in March.
She was additionally non-committal when requested if she’d assist Trump on the marketing campaign path this fall if he in the end secures the GOP nomination.
“I don’t know what actions I’m gonna take in terms of that, but I always said that even though I have problems with President Trump, I have more problems with Joe Biden,” Haley mentioned.
And lastly, we requested her if she might 100% rule out operating on a presidential ticket with No Labels, a centrist third-party group that’s actively courting potential candidates. She got here near taking herself out of rivalry, however this didn’t really feel just like the form of reply that may put the query to mattress for good.
You be the decide.
“I have not had one conversation with No Labels. They have sent signals to me that they want to talk. I have told them I am not interested in talking,” Haley mentioned. “I’m running as a Republican. That’s my focus is to stay in this as a Republican nominee and to win as a Republican.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”