Fresh off a distant third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, former United States Ambassador Nikki Haley came up more than 11 points short of scoring a victory in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary where she was the only major candidate still running against former President Donald Trump.
Nevertheless, she delivered remarks on Tuesday evening during which she expressed a commitment to remain in the race and looked forward to what she predicted would be a strong performance in her home state of South Carolina.
She began by admitting defeat in New Hampshire, where some of her supporters had been predicting a closer race, if not an outright win by her campaign.
FLASHBACK: Chris Sununu said Haley would win New Hampshire in a “landslide.” She LOST! pic.twitter.com/poP1TwTmKH
— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) January 24, 2024
“He earned it, and I want to acknowledge that,” she said of Trump’s win.
From there, she lashed out at what she dubbed the “political class,” which apparently consists of those who believe Trump’s seemingly insurmountable front-runner status means there is no viable path for her to secure the GOP nomination.
“They’re falling all over themselves saying this race is over,” Haley complained. “Well, I have news for all of them. New Hampshire is the first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over. There are dozens of states left to go.”
Her underperformance in the nation’s first primary notwithstanding, she offered an optimistic outlook ahead of a Feb. 24 election in the state where she previously served as governor.
“Every time I’ve run for office in South Carolina, I’ve beaten the political establishment,” Haley declared. “They’re lined up against me again; that’s no surprise. But South Carolina voters don’t want a coronation. They want an election.”
While Haley attempted to portray herself as the best-suited candidate to defeat President Joe Biden in November’s general election, Trump’s victory speech cited an array of polling results that show he is in a prime position to take on the incumbent across most of the battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the election.
“We’ve won almost every single poll in the last three months against crooked Joe Biden, almost, and she doesn’t win those polls,” the former president explained.
