OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
It is tough to imagine what reason former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley has for continuing her presidential campaign.
There is not one poll that exists anywhere that we have seen that shows her ahead of former President Donald Trump in any state, and a new poll from her home state of South Carolina, where she served as governor, shows her getting destroyed by the former president.
The new poll shows the former president with a 27-point lead on Haley in the Palmetto State, with 57 percent support, while Haley has 31 percent and 11 percent uncertain, The New York Post reported.
The former president was ahead of Haley in every group except for Democrats, who gave Haley 49 percent support.
The Post noted further:
More than two-thirds of respondents (68%) said they held favorable views of Trump, with 44% saying those views were “strongly favorable.”
By contrast, only 56% said they had favorable opinions of Haley, with just 23% saying their views of her were “strongly favorable.”
The economy and immigration were far and away the top issues for South Carolina voters, with 66% saying the former was one of their top two issues and half saying the same of “fighting illegal immigration.”
Haley enters the South Carolina contest off a third-place finish in Iowa, behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and an 11 percentage-point loss to the 45th president in New Hampshire.
Friday’s poll was the first major survey of the first-in-the-South primary released since the New Hampshire result.
But after the former president trounced her in New Hampshire, Haley said she was not going to end her campaign.
Haley spoke to supporters after the race was called and vowed to stay in the race until the end. Despite losing both Iowa and New Hampshire — while also trailing big in Nevada and South Carolina polls — Haley claimed she had a path forward.
Haley acknowledged her defeat but was adamant that “we keep moving up.”
“I want to congratulate Donald Trump,” she said before knocking the “political class” for “saying this race is over.”
“With Donald Trump, Republicans have lost almost every competitive election. We lost the Senate. We lost the House. We lost the White House. We lost in 2018. We lost in 2020. And we lost in 2022,” Haley declared.
“The worst kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump,” Haley claimed, adding, “a Trump nomination is a Biden win and a Kamala Harris president.”
“Our fight is not over because we have a country to save,” Haley stressed. “New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go. And the next one is my sweet state of South Carolina.”
She also noted she got “close to half of the vote.”
During a campaign event before Tuesday’s primary election in New Hampshire, Haley told a crowd in Seabrook that the Republican primary is now between herself and former President Donald Trump. Haley also vowed to stay in the race after the New Hampshire primary, which polling shows she will lose to Trump.
“We just heard that Ron DeSantis has dropped out the race. I want to say to Ron, he ran a great race. He’s been a good governor, and we wish him well. Having said that, it’s now one fella and one lady left!” Haley told the crowd.
Just days before the New Hampshire primary, DeSantis endorsed Trump and withdrew from the Republican presidential race in 2024. The Florida governor took to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, and made the announcement.
“If there was anything I could do to produce a favorable outcome, more campaign stops, more interviews, I would do it. But I can’t ask our supporters to volunteer their time and donate their resources if we don’t have a clear path to victory. Accordingly, I am today suspending my campaign,” said DeSantis, who was a distant third in the single digits in the latest polls in New Hampshire.
