‘I’m not giving up this fight’: Haley vows to stay in the race

Columbia, South Carolina: In the end, it wasn’t much of a contest.

Within minutes of polls closing in the South Carolina primary race, Donald Trump had been declared the winner, delivering a humiliating blow to Nikki Haley in her home state and casting further doubt about her hopes for the White House.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump attends a primary election night party.Credit: AP

The former UN ambassador had been suggesting for weeks that even if she couldn’t defeat Trump in Iowa or New Hampshire as they battled for the Republican presidential nomination, she would surely be able to buck the trend in South Carolina at the hands of voters who knew her as their former two-term governor.

But it wasn’t to be – and not for the lack of trying.

While Trump barely campaigned in the state until this week, Haley held about 30 events and spent millions of dollars on advertising.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaking at an election night event in Charleston.Credit: AP

She had pitched herself as a new generational conservative leader while reminding voters of the division and chaos Trump sowed.

And she warned Republicans that Trump had a history of winning primaries but losing general elections, such as the 2020 presidential election, his first midterm election in 2018 and the midterm election he sought to influence in 2022.

“We can’t change this country if we don’t win,” she would often say.

It was a solid argument; the trouble is that most Republicans are now Trump Republicans, and they didn’t buy her brand of conservatism. Indeed, with the majority of votes counted on Saturday night (Sunday AEDT), Trump had won about 60 per cent of the share in South Carolina, giving him a clean sweep of all the presidential nominating contests so far this year, and putting him on track to potentially clinch the party’s nomination within the next month.

US President Joe Biden and his predecessor, Donald Trump.Credit: AP

Once that occurs, the Trump-Biden rematch that few Americans seem to want will kick into gear.

Yet, Haley insists she would remain in the race, and will move on to the Michigan primary this week, followed by Super Tuesday on March 5. That’s when 15 states hold their primary contests and a third of delegates – of which 1215 are needed for a candidate to secure the presidential nomination – are up for grabs.

In a sombre speech in Charleston on Saturday night, Haley argued that the 40 per cent share of votes she received was not insignificant, and quitting this early would consign the country to a coronation of two men who were relics of the past.

“I’m not giving up this fight when a majority of Americans disapprove of both Donald Trump and Joe Biden,” she said.

“South Carolina has spoken. We’re the fourth state to do so. In the next 10 days, another 21 states and territories will speak [in their primary races]. They have the right to a real choice – not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate. And I have a duty to give them that choice.”

It was a defiant move that once again showed the tenacity of a woman who described her campaign against Trump this week as “David taking on Goliath”.

But while David ultimately won his battle, it is hard to see a path forward for Haley to overtake Trump, particularly if her donors – who are needed to keep her campaign alive in other states – start pulling out.

What’s more, Republican voters have so far shown little sign that they are turning away from the former president, even as he faces 91 criminal charges across four trials and is likely to spend as much time in the courtroom as he will on the campaign trail.

Donald Trump, with lawyers Christopher Kise and Alina Habba, at the closing arguments in the Trump Organisation civil fraud trial at New York State Supreme Court last month.Credit: AP

Indeed, many of the voters this masthead spoke to subscribed to Trump’s view that he was the target of a politically motivated witch-hunt, and often equated an attack on him as an attack on themselves.

For Trump, this latest resounding victory merely cements his grip on a Republican Party firmly moulded in his image.

For Haley, the defeat has fuelled further uncertainty about her political future, even though she insists the stakes are much higher than that.

“It seems like our country is falling apart,” she says. “But here’s the thing – America will come apart if we make the wrong choices. This has never been about me or my political future. We need to beat Joe Biden in November, and I don’t believe Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden.”

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