Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley plans to campaign hard in her home state before moving quickly to hit many other states ahead of the March 5 Super Tuesday contest, hoping she will perform well enough to eventually overtake front-runner Donald Trump.
Her campaign has emphasized that there is plenty of time for Haley, 52, to overcome Trump’s 27-point polling lead in the Palmetto State, with the candidate telling supporters in New Hampshire following the state’s Jan. 23 primary that she is “just getting started. “
But the brief recovery from the Feb. 24 Southern primary to Super Tuesday presents new challenges for Haley, who has so far relied on her personal appeal to voters looking for an alternative to the 45th president.
After South Carolina — the last state where retail politics dominates — the former ambassador to the United Nations will have to rely on “money, money, money” to keep his campaign going, according to South Carolina GOP strategist Dave Wilson.
After finishing second in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley said she will continue to campaign as the last Republican in the 2024 battle against Donald Trump. Getty Images
“He needs to be able to raise money and keep fundraising going, because that’s what’s going to put gas in the tank for him to continue the message,” he said.
Super Tuesday Gambling
After finishing third in Iowa and second in New Hampshire, Haley has taken 17 pledged delegates to Trump’s 32 delegates.
Super Tuesday — when 874 delegates are up for grabs — will determine who comes closest to, or receives, the 1,215 delegates needed to clinch the nomination, Haley’s campaign said.
“As long as I keep growing state by state, I’m in this race,” Haley told NBC’s “Meet the Press” Sunday. “I have every intention of going to Super Tuesday, until Super Tuesday. We’ll keep going and see where this takes us. That’s what we know we’re going to do now. I’m taking it one state at a time. I don’t think too far ahead.”
The big prizes on Super Tuesday are the primaries in California and Texas, which produced 169 and 161 delegates, respectively — and where polling averages show Trump leading Haley by 51 and 61 percentage points, respectively.
Some high-delegate states also hold their contests later in the calendar — such as Florida (March 19, 125 delegates), Illinois (March 19, 64 delegates), Ohio (March 19, 79 delegates), New York (April 2). , 91 delegates) and Pennsylvania (April 23, 67 delegates).
For now, however, Haley is focusing on her home state for the next three and a half weeks as she tries to put the best face possible on her six-year term as governor — an office she left seven years ago.
Americans for Prosperity Action, the super PAC funded by the Koch brothers that promoted Haley’s campaign in Iowa, also supported her in South Carolina with mailers, phone calls and voter outreach.
Open up the main possibilities
After South Carolina, Haley plans to travel to Michigan, Washington, DC, Idaho and North Dakota, her campaign manager Betsy Ankney said in a memo.
The Haley campaign has insisted that both South Carolina and Michigan have open primaries, meaning anyone can vote in the GOP primary if they don’t vote in the Democratic contest.
An open primary would likely boost Haley’s chances because independents and Democrats could cast ballots for her as they did in New Hampshire, where undeclared voters helped bring her to within 11 points of Trump.
Nikki Haley walks with supporters on Tuesday, January 23, 2024, near a polling place at Winnacunnet High School in Hampton, NH. AP
Self-proclaimed liberals and moderates make up 42% of Granite State primary voters, according to the AP’s VoteCast, with 61% of moderates and 74% of liberals voting for Haley.
The open primary system is also used by most Super Tuesday states, allowing Haley’s campaign to argue “there is significant fertile ground for Nikki” on March 5.
“Eleven of the 16 Super Tuesday states have open or semi-open primaries. Of the 874 delegates on Super Tuesday, about two-thirds are in states with open or semi-open elections,” Ankney wrote. “This includes Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, and Vermont, all with favorable demographics.”
Haley skipping the Nevada caucus on February 8 also gives her more time to speak to voters in her home state, although her failure to compete gives Trump a golden opportunity to expand his lead with the possible support of all 26 delegates from the Silver State.
Build a strategy
The Haley campaign told The Post that it has been “focused on building a state leadership team in each state, made up of local elected officials, members of the business community and influential grassroots leaders who can explain to their communities why Haley is the best candidate.”
Nikki Haley hopes to have a “stronger” finish in South Carolina, where she is a two-term governor. AP
The team also touts raising more than $4 million since New Hampshire in grassroots donations online alone, with 60,000 new donors pledging in the past month, a representative for Haley told The Post.
The campaign sold 15,000 “banned forever” shirts after Trump threatened to blacklist anyone who donated to Haley, raising more than $500,000 from the effort.
Going forward, the campaign has at least 10 fundraisers scheduled in the next two weeks, including in California, Texas, New York and Trump’s own backyard in Palm Beach, Fla.
Ultimately, however, Haley’s chance to get back in the race starts at home.
“How well he does in South Carolina will determine how voters feel in other states,” Wilson said. “They look at it, and they ask the question, ‘Which horse looks like a winner?’ And [they] want to get behind the horse.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/