With 48 states and U.S. territories remaining in the Republican presidential primary calendar, and with her trailing Donald Trump by just 15 delegates, Nikki Haley told Newsmax on Monday there's plenty of time left for her to gain ground on the former president for the GOP nomination.
"The goal is to continue to grow," Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador in the Trump administration, told "American Agenda." "We started with 2% in Iowa. We got rid of the fellas. It's just me and Trump in the end. We went to 20% in Iowa. We got 43% in New Hampshire and now in South Carolina, we want to be stronger than that."
Haley noted it takes 1,215 delegates to secure the GOP nomination, and Trump has 32 to her 17. But she won't be gaining any of Nevada's 26 delegates because she is not on the ballot for the state's GOP caucus on Feb. 8; instead, she is on the primary ballot Feb. 6, where no GOP delegates are at stake. Her home state's primary is Feb. 24, and she is trailing Trump by 33.3 percentage points (62.5%-29.2%) in the FiveThirtyEight polling average.
"This is still very much a race," she said. "No matter what anyone is saying, we have got to go and keep this going. Forty-eight states and territories still need to vote. But more than that, let's speak some hard truths. If Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee, we will get a President Kamala Harris. You mark my words. He cannot win a general election.
"Look at Iowa. Look at New Hampshire. He can't get independents. He can't get suburban women. He's losing Republicans who say they don't want him and will vote for someone else. It's a problem.
"This is not personal for me. I have no problems with Donald Trump. I voted for him twice. I was proud to serve in his administration. This is about the fact America can't lose again. We lost in 2018, we lost in 2020, we lost in 2022. How many more times do we have to lose before we realize we have to right this ship?"
The Republican National Committee rejected an effort last week to name Trump the presumptive GOP nominee, virtually ending the primary competition. Haley blamed Trump and Republicans in the "political elite" for encouraging her to bow out of the race so the party can start focusing its money and resources on the general election campaign against President Joe Biden.
"I've never been part of the political elite," she said. "I don't want to be a part of the political elite. The people who were saying that are the congressional members around [Trump], the Lindsey Grahams of the world and everybody who has gotten nothing done on cutting wasteful spending. Nothing done on the border. Nothing done on preventing war. They've done nothing.
"Donald Trump has surrounded himself once again by people who have done nothing and will do nothing. It's time to start listening to the American people."
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Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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