9 months ago
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is committed to staying in the pared down Republican presidential through Super Tuesday, she said Sunday.
But when pressed, Haley, the only high-profile candidate remaining in the GOP contest other than former President Donald Trump, wouldn’t say whether she’d still be in the race by the time the party's nominating convention rolls around in July.
“Yes or no, are you in this race through the convention, beyond Super Tuesday? Yes or no?,” NBC’s Kristen Welker asked Haley during an interview on “Meet the Press" on Sunday.
“As long as I keep growing per state, I am in this race,” Haley said. “I have every intention of going to Super Tuesday. Through Super Tuesday we're going to keep on going and see where this gets us. That's what we know we're going to do right now. I take it one state at a time. I don't think too far ahead.”
Super Tuesday, set for March 5 this year, often serves to cull presidential primary fields as roughly one-third of all delegates are determined by the more than a dozen states that hold their primaries on the day, including California and Texas.
But a number of populous states will hold their primaries after that date, including Florida, Illinois, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. The final presidential primaries will be June 4.
The once-crowded GOP primary has been whittled down to a match-up between Haley and Trump, after multiple well-known candidates left the race following Trump’s domination of the Iowa caucuses. Haley earned 19 percent of the vote in the Hawkeye State, and managed to win roughly 43 percent in New Hampshire, but still fell short to Trump, who won the first-in-the-nation primary with close to 54 percent of the vote.
Though Nevada’s vote comes next for Republicans, both candidates have largely turned their attention to Haley’s home state of South Carolina, which will vote Feb. 24.
Haley said Sunday she doesn’t need a win in South Carolina to keep her campaign alive. But she is gunning for a stronger performance than she had in New Hampshire, despite polls showing Trump with a much larger lead there than he had in New Hampshire.
“I need to show that I'm stronger in South Carolina than New Hampshire. Does that have to be a win? I don't think that necessarily has to be a win,” Haley said. “But it certainly has to be better than what I did in New Hampshire, and it certainly has to be close.”
Haley declined to say Sunday whether Trump’s attacks on her casting doubt on her eligibility to be president because she is the daughter of Indian immigrants were racist, but blasted the rhetoric and warned that it is likely to get worse.
“I think that's for everybody else to decide. I think, you know, the fact that he continues to go down these paths of saying things, you know, is this who we want as a president? Is this who we want our kids to see? I don't think so. And, look, he's just going to become more unhinged, Kristen … It's going to get worse, because that's what he does when he feels like he's not in control,” Haley said.
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