Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley remains undeterred despite Donald Trump’s decisive victory in the South Carolina primary, her home state where she had previously hinted at her competitiveness against the former president.
Ignoring calls from South Carolina Republicans to withdraw from the race, Haley embarked on a journey to Michigan on Sunday, where the primary is set to take place on Tuesday.
Within less than 24 hours following her defeat to Trump on Saturday night, Haley’s campaign reported a substantial $1 million fundraising surge “solely from grassroots supporters,” which they argue underscores her enduring appeal to a wide cross-section of Americans.
With his triumph in the first-in-the-South contest on Saturday, Trump has now secured victory in every primary or caucus held during the early stages of the GOP nomination process. His dominant performances have left little room for maneuver for Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations.
Haley (Credits: ABC News)
Addressing jubilant supporters at a victory celebration in Columbia, Trump declared, “I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now.”
Despite mounting pressure for her to exit the race and allow Trump to focus solely on challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in a potential 2020 rematch, Haley remains resolute in her determination to continue her campaign.
In addition to a rally in the populous Oakland County, Michigan, north-west of Detroit on Sunday evening, she also scheduled an event in Grand Rapids, a key Republican stronghold in western Michigan, for Monday. Prior to the first event on Sunday evening, scores of supporters filled a ballroom at a Troy hotel, adorned with campaign paraphernalia and entertained by a guitar-playing duo, a departure from Haley’s usual rock rally playlist.
“I’m grateful that today is not the end of our story,” Haley assured supporters on Saturday. “We’ll keep fighting for America and we won’t rest until America wins.”
Asa Hutchinson, a Trump critic and former Arkansas governor who exited the GOP presidential race following Iowa’s leadoff caucuses in January, believes Haley should persist. “The challenge is that she did everything she could in South Carolina,” he remarked on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Haley has committed to staying in the race through at least the batch of primaries scheduled for March 5, also known as Super Tuesday. “But it’s got to accelerate because you run into the delegate wall. And the delegate wall is March 5,” Hutchinson emphasized. “So she’s got to prove herself.”
South Carolina’s prominent Republicans have thrown their support behind Trump, including U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace, who endorsed him just last week.
According to U.S. Rep. Russell Fry, “this has always been a primary in name only,” asserting that Trump was never in danger of losing to Haley. Fry confidently stated that Trump would secure the GOP nomination, with the latest election results serving as “further validation of that.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a staunch Trump ally, expressed confidence in Trump’s prospects, indicating that he was “on a pathway” to securing the nomination by mid-March. “I would say the wind is strongly” at his back, Abbott remarked to CNN.
However, not all voters in South Carolina are urging Haley to end her campaign.
Irene Sulkowski of Daniel Island expressed her hope that Haley would persevere, suggesting that the former governor might be a more appealing candidate for the general election than Trump, despite his popularity among the GOP base that drives the primary season.
“They’re not thinking, ‘Who do you want to represent us in the general election?'” remarked Sulkowski, an accountant. “And they need to have a longer-term view.”
