Nikki Haley isn't throwing in the towel. The former UN ambassador and former South Carolina governor was defeated by Donald Trump in New Hampshire but will continue to fight. The primaries in New Hampshire are the first and not the last, he argued in his speech assessing the election results this Tuesday in a hotel in Concord, the capital of New Hampshire. Haley is challenging Trump to a long fight for the nomination.
“I congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight. He deserves it and I want to acknowledge it. Now you've all heard the talk among the political class that this race is over. Well, I have news for everyone. New Hampshire is the first state [en celebrar primarias] from the nation. It's not the last. This race is far from over, there are dozens of states ahead of us and the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina,” Haley said after thanking family and co-workers. “South Carolina voters don’t want a coronation. They want elections and we will hold them because we are just at the beginning,” he added.
New Hampshire is the state where Nikki Haley, Trump's only real rival remaining this Tuesday after the withdrawal of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, had the best prospects. But if Haley couldn't win in this relatively moderate state, where she had the governor's enthusiastic support and independent voters had the opportunity to participate in the Republican primary, things will be more difficult for her in the rest of the country.
Donald Trump recalled this Monday that the Republican primary race had started with more than a dozen candidates and only two remained. “And I think one person will probably leave tomorrow,” he stressed, referring to a possible withdrawal by Haley. However, the former president's rival is not retiring.
“At one point in this campaign we were 14 candidates and polling at 2%. Well, I'm a fighter and now we're the last ones standing next to Donald Trump. Today we got about half the votes. We still have a long way to go, but we continue to climb,” he said. Haley appeared when the vote was just over 20% and she had 44% of the vote, compared to 54.5% for Trump.
The former president expressed his disappointment on social media that Haley isn't giving up. Haley used her acceptance speech in New Hampshire to begin campaigning for the next primary. “For many people, politics is too personal. For me it's not personal. I voted for Trump twice. I was proud to serve the United States and its Cabinet. I agree with many of their guidelines. I decided to run because I am concerned about the future of our country. And because it’s time to leave negativity and chaos behind,” he said.
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“We have an economy that oppresses the American middle class. We have a completely open and dangerous border that is causing a catastrophe in our country. We have schools that are failing many of our children, and we have a world on fire, with war in Europe and the Middle East and a huge and growing threat from China. And then we look at Washington, DC We have a Congress that fights for everything and achieves nothing. And we have Joe Biden in the White House making one bad decision after another, if he makes any decision at all. Our country is a real disaster. The question is who will fix the problem,” he said, before attacking his current rival.
Haley recalled that the Republicans lost almost all of the contested elections with Donald Trump. “We lost the Senate. We lost the house. We lost the White House. We lost in 2018. We lost in 2020 and we lost in 2022. The worst kept secret in politics is the Democrats' desire to run against Donald Trump. They know that Trump is the only Republican in the country that Joe Biden can defeat. You can't fix the mess if you don't win an election. “A Trump nomination is a bad plan and a Kamala Harris presidency,” he attacked.
The former South Carolina governor challenged Trump to a debate, attacking her mental capacity for confusing her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. “The other day, Donald Trump accused me of failing to provide security at the Capitol on January 6th. You know that I have long been calling for mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old. Trump claims he does better than me on one of these tests. Maybe I would. Maybe not. But if he thinks that, he should have no problem appearing in a debate,” he said.
Haley reminded that the majority of Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump. “The party that is the first to withdraw its 80-year-old candidate will be the one that wins these elections. And I think it should be the Republicans who win this election. So our fight is not over yet. As we have a country that will speak in the next two months, millions of voters in more than 20 states will express their opinions, we must honor them and enable them to vote,” he said.
In the Republican case, the next stage of the primary is Nevada, but that's a bit confusing. There will be primaries (voting at the polls at a set time, like a traditional election) on February 6th, and caucuses (more informal gatherings of citizens at which they vote for their candidates) two days later. Until 2020 there were only caucuses, but this year the caucuses and exams were chaotic and the Democratic-held state legislature agreed to introduce primaries in 2024. However, the Republican Party rebelled and not only continued to hold caucuses but also left delegates too dependent on them. Haley is participating in the primary election but is not participating in the caucuses. And with Trump, who will receive the delegates, the opposite happens: he is in the caucuses, but not on the ballot papers.
After Nevada, the February 24 primary will take place in South Carolina, Haley's home state but where the former president enjoys solid support and is the clear favorite. That's the next date Haley has set, and its outcome will depend on whether the race remains open on Super Tuesday, March 5, the day a larger number of states hold elections.
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