The Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley does not want to admit defeat too quickly in her duel with Donald Trump, which has little chance of winning her party’s presidential candidacy. “I’m not going anywhere,” the former US ambassador to the United Nations told CNN. She was in the race for the long haul and would stay there, the 52-year-old assured in response to several questions about why she was not dropping out of the Republican primary campaign despite poor prospects and despite the urging of many party colleagues.
Anyone who wants to become a presidential candidate in the USA must first prevail in internal party primaries. Of the Republican presidential candidates, only Haley and Trump remain. In national polls, Trump has a huge lead over Haley. The ex-US President also clearly won the first two primaries in the states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Haley is therefore given little chance of ultimately prevailing against Trump.
The next important milestone in the race is the Republican primary in the state of South Carolina at the end of February. Haley used to be governor there. But even in the conservative southern state, Trump leads by a wide margin despite Haley’s home advantage. Nevertheless, she appeared combative in the CNN interview and pointed out that in the past few months she had worked her way up from single-digit poll numbers to clearly double-digit primary election results. She also wants to make up for the deficit in South Carolina.
Trump supporters have long been urging Haley to withdraw from the race given the former president’s dominance. Some observers had expected that she might fold relatively quickly after the New Hampshire vote more than a week ago to avoid embarrassment in her native South Carolina.
