Nikki Haley’s campaign has a message for all those who are declaring her presidential candidacy all but over should she lose in New Hampshire to Donald J. Trump on Tuesday.
“We aren’t going anywhere,” wrote Ms. Haley’s campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, in a memo about the path forward for Ms. Haley, which was provided first to The New York Times.
In the memo, Ms. Ankney described how Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and former United Nations ambassador, outlasted all the other candidates for her one-on-one shot at Mr. Trump and would not be dissuaded from fighting on, even if “members of Congress, the press, and many of the weak-kneed fellas who ran for president are giving up and giving in.”
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In a memo, Nikki Haley’s campaign manager wrote that “We aren’t going anywhere.”
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The memo reads as something of a direct response to the Trump campaign’s ongoing efforts to make her departure from the race feel inevitable, if not immediate.
Ms. Haley herself, in an appearance on Tuesday on Fox News, said she was staying in regardless of the outcome.
“No, I don’t get out if I lose today,” Ms. Haley said. “Again, I’m going to say this, we’ve had 56,000 people vote for Donald Trump, and you’re going to say that’s what the country wants? That’s not what the country wants.”
In the memo, Ms. Ankney attempted to push back on the argument, as she put it, that “New Hampshire is ‘the best it’s going to get’ for Nikki due to independents and unaffiliated voters being able to vote in the Republican primary.”
After New Hampshire, where voting is underway, the next major collision for the two candidates would be in South Carolina in a month, on Feb. 24, after a tiny battle for delegates in the U.S. Virgin Islands on Feb. 8.
Ms. Ankney noted that in South Carolina there is no party registration, meaning anyone who does not vote in the Democratic primary on Feb. 3 could vote in the Republican one later in the month. More significantly, she pointed out 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.”
“Until then, everyone should take a deep breath,” Ms. Ankney wrote. “The campaign has not even begun in any of these states yet. No ads have been aired and candidates aren’t hustling on the ground. A month in politics is a lifetime. We’re watching democracy in action. We’re letting the people have a voice. That’s how this is supposed to work.”
Ms Ankney cited Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Vermont as Super Tuesday states with “favorable demographics,” and noted that Michigan, which votes after South Carolina, is also an open-primary state.
“After Super Tuesday, we will have a very good picture of where this race stands,” she wrote.
Of course, all campaigns say they are pushing on — until they aren’t. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida had scheduled an event in New Hampshire on Sunday that he only canceled after withdrawing from the race in a video recorded in Florida.
Ms. Haley has scheduled a number of fund-raisers in the coming weeks in California, Florida, New York and Texas, and has already booked a $4 million television buy in South Carolina.
Mr. Trump’s campaign has been ratcheting up the pressure on Ms. Haley to exit the race if she has a poor showing.
The Trump campaign’s top two advisers, Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles, put out a memo on Sunday, after Mr. DeSantis ended his campaign, arguing that Ms. Haley “must win New Hampshire” in order to remain viable.
If she remains in the race through her home state of South Carolina, they warned, she would be “absolutely DEMOLISHED and EMBARRASSED,” using capital letters for emphasis.
Ms. Ankney appeared to respond in her missive, using her own capitals to make one final point about the choice for the G.O.P.: “DO REPUBLICANS WANT TO WIN?”
“See y’all in South Carolina,” the memo ends.
Source: Elections - nytimes.com
