American Conservative Union Chair Matt Schlapp told Newsmax on Wednesday that former Nikki Haley's decision to continue her presidential campaign after coming in second place in the New Hampshire Republican primary is "a little delusional."
Schlapp said on "Wake Up America" the day after the primary that former President Donald Trump had a "big win," adding that "it's history, Republican presidential candidates just don't win Iowa and New Hampshire back-to-back, and they never win them by double digits, such big margins."
Trump was declared the winner of the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary by most news outlets Tuesday night. He had 54.4% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon, with 96% of the total number of votes counted, to Haley's 43.3%.
Schlapp said that "New Hampshire was just a unique opportunity for Nikki Haley to do well" because the state allows independent voters to cast a ballot in the GOP primary, but "she's going to lose this by 12 points and now she faces a destructive loss" in New Hampshire, "a 100% loss in Nevada," where she will not appear on the caucus ballot, "and a big loss in her home state."
Schlapp continued: "It's a little delusional, this idea that she's still a candidate … I suppose, if you still have dollars in the account, you can keep running around. But I think for all the rest of us who are based in reality, we're now 100% focused on unifying and beating [President] Joe Biden."
Schlapp predicted that Haley will "probably continue to give speeches and everything else. Or she might be like [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis, after a few days enough people kind of tell her, 'You look a little silly, just endorse Trump now, maybe you get in the Cabinet, maybe you play a bigger role in politics in the future.'"
"It's all about 2028," Schlapp said.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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