Nikki Haley supporters in Michigan want her to CONTINUE her campaign after 20-point loss in her home state so she can ‘pick up the pieces’ if Trump implodes: ‘It’s going to be hard for him to run for president from jail’

It had been almost exactly 24 hours since Nikki Haley lost to Donald Trump by a 60-40 margin in her home state of South Carolina, and supporters who packed a hotel ballroom in Michigan cheered her on to continue the fight, so that she can benefit from any calamities that might arise. happen to the frontrunner.

“I think maybe she’s there in case something happens — she can pick up the pieces,” said Dale Morgan, a retired chiropractor who came to see Haley after voting for Trump in 2020.

“I prefer Nikki – I think Trump is an asshole,” he said.

Morgan is a realist about Haley’s ability to break Trump’s lead: She has yet to win a state and is ahead in the upcoming Super Tuesday contests. But he says he wants her to stay in the fight.

“I’m tired of the lack of decorum and stuff like that. “I think the Dignity Office … whatever happened on January 6, Trump should have ridden with Biden to the inauguration,” he said.

“It doesn’t seem like there’s a path for her to win the nomination,” he admits. But he says Haley could get her run back on track “if something happens” with the front-runner, noting that “Trump has so many problems. But his voting numbers rise every time he goes to court.”

Morgan spoke to DailyMail.com about the state of the race shortly after Haley held her first public event since losing to Trump. She made little reference to her defeat as she began her remarks to several hundred supporters.

“We came from South Carolina. It’s colder here,” she began.

William Brown, 27, a mechanic who works on Lincolns, calls himself a realist, but also wants Haley to hold on despite the odds and the polls.

“If Trump is charged with anything, it will be difficult for him to run for president from prison. So there is still hope. And if we don’t win this year, there’s always 2028,” he said.

He’s done voting for Trump. ‘If he could have stayed off Twitter and run the presidency the way the president should, maybe. But he just can’t keep quiet, he can’t do his job.’ And if Haley doesn’t win? ‘TIf I have to watch Third Party, otherwise I might not vote at all.”

“I would like to have her on for many years to come,” said Haley backer Grant Spencer, who called Trump a “thug.”

Robert Janisfe hopes Haley can be Trump’s running mate in case ‘Trump is disqualified due to his legal troubles’

“If Trump is charged with anything, it will be difficult for him to run for president from prison,” said mechanic William Brown. Haley’s signs at the event didn’t say ‘Michigan’ – but they didn’t say ‘2024’ either

Nikki Haley said the 40 percent of voters who supported her in South Carolina should not ‘cave’ for Trump

US Republican presidential candidate and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley greets supporters at a rally in Troy, Michigan, on February 25, 2024, a day after losing her home state to Trump

That’s a stance consistent with exit poll results from South Carolina, where a fifth of Haley’s supporters said they wouldn’t support Trump — enough to raise alarm among Republicans about the November election even now he leads Joe Biden in the polls in battleground Michigan, a state that Biden won in 2020 and Trump won in 2016.

Another supporter, Grant Grant Spencer, brought daughters Harper and Ella to see Haley, plus 16-month-old Riker to see the 52-year-old candidate who he believes has a bright future.

Spencer is an optimist when it comes to Haley’s chances. ‘I think anything is possible. It’s a matter of probability. And there’s always a way.’

“I would like to have her on the card for many years to come,” says the 2020 Trump supporter, who hates the former president.

“I believe he is a criminal,” he says of Trump.

Spencer says, “America is built on compromise.” If Haley loses and it becomes a race between Trump and Joe Biden, “I would probably go back to my libertarian roots,” he says.

Robert Janisfe came to the event in his Honda Gold Wing Road Riders Association motorcycle jacket. He makes plastic molds for a living, but isn’t interested in how Trump has broken the traditional political mold for politicians.

“Even though he’s on the ballot, how is he going to fill the role (with) all the problems he has – legal problems, personal problems, things like that. And his opponents won’t let him go with a hit. “I understand why everyone is still voting for him because he is the dark horse,” he said.

Janisfe says he doesn’t know if Haley can beat Trump. “But her best chance is vice president. It would be Trump and them, and Trump being disqualified because of his legal troubles – that could be worth the country’s trouble.”

Haley herself continues to rap Trump, although she has denied any interest in becoming his vice president.

On Sunday evening, she called for tests of the mental competency of office holders, hammered him on debt and isolationism and his reliance on political supporters to pay $50 million in legal fees, and co-opted some of his attacks on electric cars.

And she tied him to Vladimir Putin after Trump said he would encourage Russia to invade NATO allies that fail to meet their defense commitments.

“Trump is siding with a criminal… Trump is siding with a dictator who is killing political opponents,” Haley said.

Haley waved her 40 percent support in South Carolina and said a victorious Trump is the one who should reassure her supporters.

“You can’t have a candidate who’s going to win a primary who can’t win a general,” she said. ‘As an incumbent Republican, he did not get 40 percent of the votes in the primaries.

“He’s not going to get that forty percent by calling them names,” she continued. “He won’t get the 40 percent if he’s not willing to change and do something that recognizes the 40 percent.

“Why should that 40 percent give in to him?”