GREENVILLE (South Carolina Daily Gazette) — Former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley put to bed any ideas that she would be dropping out of the GOP presidential primary race during a speech Tuesday.
“South Carolina will vote on Saturday, but on Sunday, I’ll still be running for president,” she said during a stop in Greenville. “I’m not going anywhere.”
The speech, billed as the state of the race, came just over a year from Haley’s announcement that she would seek the Republican presidential primary nomination.
Over the past year, Haley has stuck it out even as other candidates had dropped, leaving her the sole major contender against former President Donald Trump.
“Dropping out would be the easy route. I’ve never taken the easy route,” she said. “I’ve always been David taking on Goliath.”
She is not expected to win her home state, but has said repeatedly that she will remain in the race through Super Tuesday.
Haley said she is not a “never-Trump” candidate but made it clear that she felt neither he nor President Joe Biden was fit to run the country. As for Trump, she said that, unlike some other GOP candidates who have dropped out of the race, “I feel no need to kiss the ring. And I have no fear of Trump’s retribution. I’m not looking for anything from him.”
She also answered critics who have said she is staying in the race in hopes of a potential vice presidency nod, saying, “I’ve pretty well settled that question.”
She alternated her attacks between Trump and Biden, saying both are dividing the country and questioning their mental acuity.
“We have two hugely flawed candidates in Biden and Trump,” she said. “Trump and Biden are two old men who are only getting older.”
Haley has leaned into the message that she can be a unifying candidate, saying her opponents are too divisive and asking South Carolinians to vote for her.
“To my beloved South Carolinians, I ask that you stand with me,” she said toward the end of her remarks. “See the America I see, and remember we can still unite and move forward together, not with anger, not with fear, but with faith and hope.”
Emphasizing her plans to stay in the race, Haley’s campaign announced that on Sunday, the day after the primary vote in South Carolina, she’ll begin a series of trips that will take her to campaign stops in Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina and Massachusetts, and Washington D.C.
