Nikki Haley hosts a rally in Conway as part of her swing in the Palmetto State ahead of the state’s primary election on January 28, 2024 in Conway, SC, USA.
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Former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley delivered a clear message Tuesday: She has the resources and motivation to ensure the Republican primary doesn’t end any time soon.
During a speech billed as a “state of the race” update, Haley said she intends to remain in the 2024 election regardless of her performance in the upcoming Republican primary in South Carolina.
“South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday I will still be running for president. I’m not going anywhere,” Haley said in Greenville, South Carolina.
According to a recent poll from USA Today and Suffolk University, Trump is ahead by around 30 points in Haley’s home state.
“Some of you – maybe some of you in the media – came here today to see if I would drop out of the race. Well, I don’t. Far from it,” Haley said.
Haley says she will campaign at least until Super Tuesday, March 5, when 16 states and territories, totaling more than a third of all GOP delegates, are at stake.
Haley’s optimism suggests that even in the face of daunting odds, she still has two essential ingredients to mount a political campaign: determination and funding.
“We have the resources to go the distance,” a spokesperson for Haley’s campaign told CNBC, noting that January was the campaign’s strongest fundraising month to date, with $16.5 million in donations.
The spokesman also pointed to several cases in which Trump’s attacks on Haley resulted in millions of dollars in donations. For example, Haley raised $1 million in 48 hours after Trump attacked Haley’s husband’s military service.
Haley’s presidential campaign first gained traction late last year, when she secured high-profile financial support from names like billionaire Charles Koch’s political network, Americans for Prosperity Action, and a number of Wall Street megadonors. These networks gave her the influence and funding to kick her campaign into high gear.
In recent weeks, some of these donors have gone easy on their wallets. Billionaire Reid Hoffman, for example, said he would suspend his donations to Haley after her defeat in the New Hampshire primary.
Nonetheless, Haley’s robust fundraising has been a thorn in the side of the Trump campaign.
A day after Haley won 43% of the vote in New Hampshire, for example, the former president took to social media to declare that all Haley donors would be “permanently banned from the MAGA camp.” That threat resulted in $2 million in donations to the Haley campaign within 48 hours, according to a Haley spokesman.
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2024-02-20 21:06:39
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