Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign has for weeks been looking ahead to the Republican primary in South Carolina, her home state where she was twice elected governor. After losing to former President Donald Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire, then Nevada and the US Virgin Islands, Haley’s candidacy for the GOP presidential nomination is nearing the brink.
And the Palmetto State appears poised Saturday to push it closer to – and possibly over – the edge.
Trump has led in every poll of South Carolina, before and after Haley emerged as his final roadblock to a third straight Republican presidential nomination. Nearly all of the state’s top GOP elected officials are supporting Trump, and the eyeball test – particularly when it comes to crowd size at campaign rallies – suggests they can see a landslide coming.
Haley’s team is under no illusions about the task at hand.
“We know the odds. We know the stakes,” campaign manager Betsy Ankney told reporters Friday. “Eyes wide open, we will take the arrows, we will take the slings, but we are focused on the fight ahead.”
Haley insists that, no matter the outcome, she will carry on to Super Tuesday in March and potentially beyond. Earlier this week, she told supporters – and others questioning her staying power – that she was digging in.
“South Carolina will vote on Saturday. But on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president,” Haley said. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The Trump campaign, for its part, doesn’t appear too concerned about paving an off-ramp for Haley.
In a memo released as Haley was pledging to stay in, Trump’s team declared that “the end is near for Nikki Haley,” calling her – in predictably Trumpian language – a “wailing loser…
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