Tag: us election

Nikki Haley hasn’t yet won a GOP contest. But she’s vowing to keep fighting Donald Trump

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February 20, 2024 09:34 pm | Updated 09:34 pm IST – KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C.

— There are no wins on the horizon for Nikki Haley. Those close to the former United Nations Ambassador, the last major Republican candidate standing in Donald Trump’s path to the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, are privately bracing for a blowout loss in her home State’s primary election in South Carolina on February 24. And they cannot name a State where she is likely to beat Mr. Trump in the coming weeks.

But ahead of a major address on Feb. 20, Me. Haley told The Associated Press that she will not leave the Republican primary election regardless of Saturday’s result. And backed by the strongest fundraising numbers of her political career, she vowed to stay in the fight against Mr. Trump at least until after Super Tuesday’s slate of more than a dozen contests on March 5.

“Ten days after South Carolina, another 20 States vote. I mean, this isn’t Russia. We don’t want someone to go in and just get 99% of the vote,” Ms. Haley said. “What is the rush? Why is everybody so panicked about me having to get out of this race?”

In fact, some Republicans are encouraging Ms. Haley to stay in the campaign even if she continues to lose — potentially to the Republican National Convention in July. Her continued presence could come in handy if the 77-year-old former president, perhaps the most volatile major party front-runner in U.S. history, becomes a convicted felon or stumbles into another major scandal.

Haley hits back at Trump

As Mr. Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement presses for her exit, a defiant Ms. Haley will outline her rationale for sticking in the race for the foreseeable future. In an interview ahead of the speech, she highlighted Mr. Trump’s legal exposure and criticised MAGA activists who say she’s hurting Mr. Trump’s chances against President Joe Biden in the general election by refusing to drop out.

“That’s about the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard. If I get out of the race today, it will be the longest general election in history,” Ms. Haley said. She also pushed back when asked if there is any primary state where she can defeat Mr. Trump. “Instead of asking me what States I’m gonna win, why don’t we ask how he’s gonna win a general election after spending a full year in a courtroom?”

History would suggest Ms. Haley has no chance of stopping Mr. Trump. Never before has a Republican lost even the first two primary contests has gone on the win the party’s presidential nomination. Polls suggest she is a major underdog in her home State and in the 16 Super Tuesday contests to follow. And since he announced his first presidential bid in 2015, every effort by a Republican to blunt Mr. Trump’s rise has failed.

Haley’s spending spree

Yet, she is leaning into the fight. Lest anyone question her commitment, Ms. Haley’s campaign is spending more than $500,000 on a new television advertising campaign set to begin running on Wednesday in Michigan ahead of the State’s Feb. 27 primary, according to spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas.

At the same time, the AP has obtained Ms. Haley’s post-South Carolina travel schedule which features 11 separate stops in seven days across Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina and Massachusetts. The schedule also includes at least 10 high-dollar private fundraising events.

Ms. Haley’s expansive base of big- and small-dollar donors is donating at an extraordinary pace despite her underwhelming performance at the polls. That’s a reflection of persistent Republican fears about Mr. Trump’s ability to win over independents and moderate voters in the general election and serious concerns about his turbulent leadership should he return to the White House.

“I’m going to support her up to the convention,” said Republican donor Eric Levine, who co-hosted a New York fundraiser for Ms. Haley earlier this month. “We’re not prepared to fold our tents and pray at the alter of Donald Trump.” “There’s value in her sticking in and gathering delegates, because if and when he stumbles,” he continued, “who knows what happens.” Mr. Levine is far from alone.

Ms. Haley’s campaign raised $5 million in a fundraising swing after her second-place finish in New Hampshire that included stops in Texas, Florida, New York, and California, Perez-Cubas said. Her campaign raised $16.5 million in January alone — her best fundraising month ever — which includes $2 million in small-dollar donations online in the 48 hours after Mr. Trump threatened to “permanently bar” Ms. Haley’s supporters from his MAGA movement.

Ms. Haley raised another $1 million last week in the 24 hours after Trump attacked her husband, a military serviceman currently serving overseas.

The lone member of Congress who has endorsed Ms. Haley, Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., insisted that she would stay in the race even if she is blown out in South Carolina, a State where she lives and served two terms as Governor. “Obviously, you want to win them all, but for those who say it’s going to embarrass her, or end her political career, I disagree. She’s willing to take that risk,” Mr. Norman said in an interview. “I think it’s a courageous thing she’s doing.”

Focus shifts to Super Tuesday primaries

Moving forward, Ms. Haley’s team is especially focused on several Super Tuesday States with open or semi-open Republican primaries that allow a broader collection of voters to participate — especially independents and moderates — instead of just hardcore conservatives.

Mr. Trump, in recent days, has shown flashes of fury in response to Ms. Haley’s refusal to cede the nomination.He called her “stupid” and “birdbrain” in a social media post over the weekend and his campaign released a memo ahead of her speech on Tuesday predicting that she would be forced out of the race after losing her home state on Saturday.

“The true ‘State’ of Nikki Haley’s campaign?” Mr. Trump’s campaign chiefs wrote. “Broken down, out of ideas, out of gas, and completely outperformed by every measure, by Donald Trump.”

Eager to pivot toward a general election matchup against Biden, the Republican former president is taking aggressive steps to assume control of the Republican National Committee, the GOP’s nationwide political machine, which is supposed to stay neutral in presidential primary elections. Last week, Mr. Trump announced plans to install his campaign’s senior adviser Chris LaCivita, as RNC’s chief operating officer and daughter-in-law Lara Trump as the committee’s co-chair.

And there is every expectation that current Chair Ronna McDaniel will step down after Mr. Trump wins South Carolina’s primary and party officials will ultimately acquiesce to Mr. Trump’s wishes. Privately, Ms. Haley’s team concedes there is nothing it can do to stop the Trump takeover.

In the interview, Ms. Haley warned her party against letting Mr. Trump raid the RNC’s coffers to pay for his legal fees while taking a short-term view of Mr. Trump’s political prospects.

Trump’s standing will fundamentally change if he is a convicted felon before Election Day, Ms. Haley said, acknowledging that such an outcome is a very real possibility as Trump navigates 91 felony charges across four separate criminal cases. “People are not looking six months down the road when these court cases have taken place,” Ms. Haley said. “He’s going to be in a courtroom all of March, April, May and June. How in the world do you win a general election when these cases keep going and the judgments keep coming?”

As for her path forward, Ms. Haley said she’s focused only on her plans through Super Tuesday. As for staying in the race through the July convention, she said she hasn’t thought that far ahead.

Some voters wish she would. Gil White, a 75-year-old Republican veteran from James Island, South Carolina, said he was a Trump loyalist until the former president criticized Haley’s husband, a military serviceman, last week. “For him to disparage a military man in deployment is just too much,” he said while attending a rally in support of Ms. Haley in Kiawah Island over the weekend.

He acknowledged concerns about Ms. Haley’s chances against Mr. Trump, but said he wants her to stay in the race even if she continues to lose. “I want the choice,” he said.

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With Donald Trump closing in on the Republican nomination, the race to become his Vice President is underway

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January 22, 2024 12:31 pm | Updated 12:32 pm IST – MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (US)

As she addressed a crushing crowd of volunteers and media at Donald Trump’s New Hampshire headquarters on Saturday, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik received a welcome chant. “VP! VP! VP!” one man shouted across the room.

While vice presidential candidates typically aren’t picked until after a candidate has locked down the nomination, Mr. Trump’s decisive win in last week’s Iowa caucuses and the departure of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis from the race have only heightened what had already been a widespread sense of inevitability that he will be the Republican nominee. That has given the campaign trail stops by Ms. Stefanik and other Republicans the feel of a public tryout reminiscent of Mr. Trump’s days as a reality TV host.

Politicians make a beeline to Trump’s campaign

Many Republicans covet a spot on the presidential ticket with Mr. Trump as a chance to serve in a high-profile role that has elevated many ambitious politicians from relative obscurity.

That interest comes despite the fate of Mr. Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence. For four years, Mr. Pence was Mr. Trump’s most loyal defender, advocating for him at every turn. But in the final months of their administration, the relationship souredm with Mr. Trump casting Mr. Pence as disloyal for refusing to go along with his effort to block President Joe Biden’s win.

Mr. Pence’s role in certifying the 2020 election not only threatened his life during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol but also sidelined his political career. He would end his own bid for this year’s GOP presidential nomination in October after failing to get traction.

The Trump campaign has held several events in both Iowa and New Hampshire with high-profile surrogates.

Beyond serving as opportunities to display their loyalty and star power to Mr. Trump’s team, the events serve as a reward for volunteers as well as a recruiting tool that brings in new faces, senior Trump officials said.

Ms. Stefanik joined Mr. Trump on stage at a rally in New Hampshire on Jan. 19, and stopped by his campaign headquarters on Jan. 20 to thank volunteers and make calls. In both appearances, she stressed that she was the first member of Congress to endorse Mr. Trump’s comeback bid.

“I’m proud to be one of his strongest supporters, particularly at key moments,” she told reporters. Asked if she would consider being his running mate, Mr. Stefanik said, “Of course I’d be honoured, I’ve said that for a year, to serve in a future Trump administration in any capacity.”

Others who have appeared in Iowa and New Hampshire on Mr. Trump’s behalf include Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, Arizona Senate candidate Kari Lake and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy appeared with Trump on stage in New Hampshire a day after dropping out of the race, also drawing “VP” chants from the crowd as he delivered a fiery speech.

At the same rally where Ms. Stefanik spoke, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Mr. Trump’s former rival in the presidential race, announced his enthusiastic endorsement in what sounded like his own audition.“We need Donald Trump!” he said, leading the crowd in an impassioned call-and-response full of the fervour many of his own campaign appearances seemed to lack. Trump stood behind him grinning.

Mr. Trump, too, has been stoking the speculation, saying during a recent Fox News town hall that he already knows “who it’s going to be.” He told Fox News host Bret Baier over the weekend that ”there’s probably a 25% chance” that he would ultimately pick the person he had in mind, adding: “The person that I think I like is a very good person, pretty standard. I think people won’t be that surprised.”

Loyalty test

Jason Miller, a senior campaign adviser, declined to address vice presidential prospects or speculation about potential running mates. But he said those who have campaigned on Mr. Trump’s behalf in Iowa and New Hampshire “have drawn massive crowds and have all done a fantastic job of energising voters to turn out for President Trump. So we’re very happy and very excited with both the jobs that they’ve all done but as well, the reception that they’ve all received,” he said.

Mr. Trump has been talking through potential choices since well before he formally launched his campaign, throwing out names, peppering friends and Mar-a-Lago members for feedback, and keeping a close eye on those jockeying for the post. He has often indicated his interest in selecting a woman in those conversations.

Allies also say that while loyalty — and having a person who can effectively defend him — is paramount, Mr. Trump is also cognizant that he would enter a second term as a lame-duck president and wouldn’t want a second-in-command who might overshadow him with immediate 2028 speculation.

Among those considered high on the list is Ms. Stefanik, a member of House Republican leadership who has seen her profile rise after her aggressive questioning of a trio of university presidents over antisemitism set in motion two of their resignations.

Mindful that aggressively angling for the job risked backfiring, the once-Trump critic has tried to position herself as a trusted ally of the former president, defending him in both of his impeachments and filing an ethics complaint in New York against the judge hearing his civil fraud case. During a recent appearance on NBC‘s Meet the Press, she referred to those imprisoned for crimes committed on Jan. 6 as “hostages.”

At a roadside country western saloon last week in the small town of Kingston, Mr. Vance, the senator from Ohio, offered a robust endorsement of Trump to a small crowd seated on bar tables nestled between whiskey barrels.

Mr. Vance once called himself a “never-Trump guy” and labelled the former US President an “idiot.” But like so much of his party, he has rallied to Mr. Trump’s side. He says the two are now “very close” and talk “all the time.” And while he said he would “help out however I can” if he was offered the vice presidential ticket, he said Trump would also need allies in Congress.

“I think that’s the best place for me is to actually be an advocate of the agenda in the United States Senate. But certainly if the president asked, I would have to think about. I want to help him out in however I can,” he said.

Mr. Vance said he wouldn’t pretend to give Trump advice on the decision, but that Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining major Republican rival, would be a poor choice. “Stefanik’s great. Kristi Noem’s great. I think all these people are great. Tim Scott’s a very, very good dude and would make a great vice president,” he said.

Nikki Haley out

Trump has already effectively ruled out Haley. He said at a rally in Concord last week that his former U.N. ambassador is “not presidential timber.” Haley is staunchly opposed by many in Trump’s “MAGA” base, including his son, Donald Trump Jr., who said he would go to “great lengths” to prevent her from being offered the job.

Other potential contenders mentioned by Mr. Trump allies include Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, his former press secretary, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, who recently endorsed Trump after dropping his own White House bid, Florida Rep. Byron Donalds and Fox News host Tucker Carlson.

Susan Ingrahm-Kelly, 64, from Bedford, New Hampshire, visited Mr. Trump’s campaign headquarters to see Ms. Stefanik in person on Jan. 20 and raved about the congresswoman’s questioning of Ivy League presidents. “Oh, I think she’s fabulous!” she said. “I absolutely love what she did, this whole thing with the Harvard.” Ms. Ingrahm-Kelly, who is leaning toward voting for Trump on Tuesday, said she also likes the idea of another woman vice president. “I like to see strong, educated, articulate women, don’t we? I think she’s fantastic.”

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