- Although her chances of winning in South Carolina are slim, Nikki Haley has set herself a benchmark of over 43%.
- That's the number of votes she received in New Hampshire, her highest state to date.
- But as the election results show, she was unable to do even that.
It's been clear for weeks that Nikki Haley would lose her home state.
Faced with that harsh reality, and the question of how she could continue her bizarre challenge to former President Donald Trump after it happened, Ms. Haley decided to run her own business in South Carolina, where she was governor for eight years. I set my standards low.
“I think we need to do better than we did in New Hampshire. We need to show that we're gaining momentum,” Haley said on Meet the Press on Jan. 28.
“Does it have to be a win? I don't think it necessarily has to be a win,” she continued. “But it definitely has to be better than what we did in New Hampshire, and it has to be close to it.”
Haley won 43.2% of the vote in New Hampshire, her best result to date. She then lost the Nevada primary, where she was the only candidate on the ballot, with an embarrassing reprimand that “none of these candidates exist.”
And on Saturday, Haley couldn't beat the benchmark she set for herself at 43.2%.
Despite this, Haley made it clear she had no intention of withdrawing, citing 21 primaries in the 10 days following South Carolina's primary.
“I refuse to resign. South Carolina will vote on Saturday, but on Sunday, I will still be running for president,” Haley declared in last weekend's “State of the State Address.” “I'm not going anywhere. I'm campaigning every day until the last person votes.”
Typically, presidential candidates end their campaigns if they lose their home state during the primaries.
In 2020, Sen. Elizabeth Warren ended her candidacy in the Democratic primary after losing her home state of Massachusetts to Biden. And in 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio ended his campaign on the same day he lost Florida to Trump.
But Haley's allegations could weigh heavily on the criminal and civil charges that Trump faces in various jurisdictions and lawsuits, giving Republicans more support for Joe Biden in the general election. It is natural to choose the candidate who will get the job.
But Haley's loss on Saturday only sets her back even further. Mr. Trump already has 63 delegates and Ms. Haley has 17, and under South Carolina's winner-take-all system, Mr. Trump will receive all 50 delegates in the state.
This gives the former president more than 6.5 times as many delegates as Haley.
