Nikki Haley won the Republican primary in Vermont in her second victory against Donald Trump. However, her victory will not prevent the former president from marching toward the Republican presidential nomination.
The only state where Haley was in a close fight with former president Trump was Vermont. Based on the early voting, Trump led Haley 49% to 48%. This looked like Haley’s best hope in the GOP primary, as she is far behind others in all the other states. Haley has clinched three delegates in the Virginia primary.
Nikki Haley reportedly kept a light schedule on Super Tuesday. She flew to South Carolina in the evening after campaigning in Texas. She was expected to come to Charleston by the afternoon. Her campaign further said she does not have anything on her calendar for Wednesday, March 6.
Haley has said her main goal in the primaries is to “remain competitive,” but she has not elaborated on what she means by that. “We are a bunch of happy warriors today, [getting out the vote], playing music and having fun,” her campaign said in a statement.
Haley’s only victory before Vermont was in Washington, DC. She won the Republican presidential primary in Washington, DC just ahead of Super Tuesday. “It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” Haley spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement at the time.
Trump beat Haley in Iowa and New Hampshire, and in Nevada too, where Haley did not appear on the ballot. She was also beaten by Trump in the US Virgin Islands, before being defeated in South Carolina, as well as Michigan.
Will Nikki Haley bow out ?
Ahead of Super Tuesday, Haley said in an interview with NBC’s Meet the Press that she was not looking “too far ahead” on being asked if she would drop out of the race if she is defeated by Trump on Tuesday. “As long as we are competitive, as long as we are showing that there is a place for us, I’m going to continue to fight,” Haley said.
“You’ve only had three or four states that have voted up until now,” she said at the time. “We’re a big country and we want everybody to feel like they had the opportunity to vote for someone and not against someone.”
