Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, former President Donald Trump’s remaining rival in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, vowed Tuesday night to stay in the race to win it.
“I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight,” Haley began her remarks. “He earned it and I want to acknowledge that. Now you’ve all heard the chatter among the political class. They’re falling all over themselves saying this race is over. Well, I have news for all of them — New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation.”
Nikki Haley: "I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight…New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina." pic.twitter.com/ZyEIYGrZWH
— CSPAN (@cspan) January 24, 2024
“This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina,” Haley said to applause from the crowd. “Every time I’ve run for office in South Carolina, I’ve beaten the political establishment. They’re lined up against me again. That’s no surprise. But South Carolina voters don’t want a coronation. They want an election.”
The South Carolina primary will be in a month on Feb. 24. One of the most-liked replies on C-SPAN’s post of the video of Haley’s speech Tuesday night to X, formerly Twitter, was by a computer engineer named Brian who said, “when she loses south carolina, she will stop.”
The latest average of South Carolina primary polls shows Trump in a commanding lead in the Palmetto state with 62% of the vote. Haley is trailing in her home state with the support of 25% of likely primary voters.
Haley styled herself in her Tuesday evening remarks as a candidate with more “winnability” than Trump in the general election and the best odds of defeating Democrat President Joe Biden in November. During these remarks, the former U.N. ambassador under the Trump Administration called herself a “fighter.”
TRUMP: “We’ve won almost every single poll in the last three months against crooked Joe Biden, and she doesn’t win those polls. She had a very bad night!” pic.twitter.com/HokOI3O9PO
— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) January 24, 2024
Trump disagreed with Haley’s view of the election in his victory speech in New Hampshire Tuesday night. He pointed out he has been beating Joe Biden in head-to-head general election polls, while she has not. “We’ve won almost every single poll in the last three months against crooked Joe Biden, and she doesn’t win those polls [ … ] She had a very bad night!”
