by Former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina on Tuesday defied calls to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination and vowed to keep fighting after a second straight loss at the hands of former President Donald J. Trump.
In moving remarks, Ms. Haley looked ahead to the upcoming primary race in South Carolina, where she is far behind Trump in the polls despite the home state advantage.
“New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation. “This race is far from over,” Ms. Haley said, adding, “We are going home to South Carolina.”
Borrowing signature lines from her election speeches, Ms. Haley noted how far she had come since the race first opened, when she was polling at just over 2 percent, declaring herself “a fighter.”
“And I’m a fighter. And now we are the last ones next to Donald Trump,” he added.
Haley also turned up the heat on Trump, the dominant front-runner in the Republican race fighting 91 felony charges, criticizing him as being as bad for the country as another four years of President Biden. She also made another inquiry into Trump’s mental fitness and his 77 years of age.
“With Donald Trump there is one bout of chaos after another,” he said. “This court case, that controversy, this tweet, that high-profile moment. “You can’t fix Joe Biden’s chaos with Republican chaos.”
In her final appearances in the Granite State before polls closed, Haley had rejected claims that Republican voters had already solidly united behind the former president and pledged not to end his candidacy regardless of the outcome.
“I didn’t get here by luck,” she said at a polling place in Hampton, New Hampshire, while flanked by supporters, including Gov. Chris Sununu, her top surrogate in the state. “I got here because I worked and outsmarted the rest of those guys. “So I’m running against Donald Trump and I’m not going to talk about an obituary.”
Trump, speaking to supporters at his victory party, mocked Haley for speaking “as if she had won.” But “she didn’t win, she lost,” he added.
On Wednesday morning, Ms. Haley is expected to speak during a meeting of the Republican State Committee in the Virgin Islands, which will hold its race on February 8. She is then expected to attend a homecoming rally in Charleston, South Carolina.
Several people close to Haley are encouraging her to move forward, many of whom are deeply opposed to Trump becoming the nominee again.
Betsy Ankney, his campaign manager, released a memo early Tuesday morning rejecting suggestions that Trump’s path to the nomination was inevitable. She noted that 11 of the 16 states that vote on Super Tuesday have “open or semi-open primaries” that can include independent voters and are “fertile ground for Nikki.”
Nevada will host a Republican caucus on February 8, but Ms. Haley will not compete in that race, instead participating in a Republican primary in the state. two days before which does not grant delegates.
His campaign has bought more than $1 million in television advertising from Tuesday through Feb. 6, according to AdImpact, a media tracking company.
And officials at his super PAC ally, Stand for America, said they, too, planned to move forward.
Mark Harris, the PAC’s chief strategist, said he was preparing television, mail and digital advertising in a get-out-the-vote effort that would be similar to programs he undertook in Iowa and New Hampshire, although as of Tuesday he had not yet conducted those investments.
“We’re running externally, so this would never magically happen in one day, so we’re going to move forward,” Harris said.
Since the summer, Haley has predicted that the Republican nomination race would result in a showdown between her and Trump in her home state. His outward confidence in that scenario hasn’t wavered, not after he failed to come in second in Iowa, not after his main rival for the No. 2 spot, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, dropped out and endorsed Trump, not after a series of elections. South Carolina lawmakers this week joined Trump in the final days of the New Hampshire race.
Her message to her allies and the media: She’s been here before.
“I won South Carolina twice as governor,” she told reporters Friday at a retro restaurant in Amherst. “I think I know what favorable territory it is in South Carolina.”
Maggie Haberman and Kellen Browning contributed reports.
