- The last Republican Party candidate who did not win his home state in the primaries was Richard Nixon
- Haley trailed Trump in SC polls ahead of the primaries in her home state
- The Haley campaign and supporters have acknowledged she has an uphill climb
Nikki Haley has vowed to stay in the race regardless of the outcome of Saturday’s Republican presidential primary in South Carolina.
But history is not on her side. In most cases, losing a primary in the home state is considered a death blow to the campaign.
It has been more than fifty years since a Republican presidential candidate failed to carry his home state and still won the Republican presidential nomination.
It was 1968 and Richard Nixon didn’t win California, the state he once represented in Congress, but he still won the nomination.
California’s winner during the Republican presidential primary season was the state’s governor, Ronald Reagan. Nixon won California in November.
Richard Nixon is the latest Republican president to hope to lose his home state in the primaries and still win the nomination. He lost California to Reagan, but ultimately won the state in the general election
In 2016, even then-Ohio Governor John Kasich won his home state in the GOP primaries. It was the only state he won that entire primary cycle, leaving him with no shot at the nomination. He eventually left the race in May.
Texas Senator Ted Cruz also won his home state in the presidential primaries that year, as well as several other states, but he could not surpass Trump’s momentum and ended his campaign just months later.
That same year, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida dropped out of the Republican presidential primary after making his final stand in his home state. Ultimately, he lost Florida to Trump by almost 20 points.
Senator Marco Rubio dropped out of the GOP presidential primaries in 2016 after losing his home state of Florida to Donald Trump
Although neither Ted Cruz (left) nor John Kasich (right) could win the nomination in 2016, both walked away from the GOP primaries after winning their home states of Texas and Ohio.
Democrats have had a similar track record, with no candidate in modern history clinching the nomination without carrying their home state in the primaries. Hillary Clinton won New York, Barack Obama won Illinois, John Kerry won Massachusetts, Al Gore won Tennessee and so on.
Haley has already said she will remain in the race and will still run Sunday no matter what happens in South Carolina, despite polls in the final days before the primaries showing her in double digits in the state where she served as governor since 2011 served. until 2017.
The state’s governor and both U.S. senators endorsed Trump during the presidential primaries and have appeared on the campaign trail for him.
Haley’s key results in the Palmetto State could be due to the turnout of Democratic and Independent voters coming out to support her.
The state has no voter registration by party, so the only voters who can’t participate are those who have already participated in the Democratic presidential primary, a detail Haley noted on the campaign trail as she encouraged her supporters to get people out to vote.
Haley denounced Republicans who called on her to resign, saying people deserve a choice in the primaries “not a Soviet-style election” during a “state of the race” speech ahead of Saturday’s primaries. She vowed to stay in the race regardless of the outcome of the primaries in her home state.
Haley spent the days leading up to South Carolina on a bus tour of the state to deliver her closing argument to voters in her home state
Haley greeted supporters during a campaign stop Friday in Moncks Corner, S.C. Her campaign manager acknowledged her “uphill” struggle but said it was about who could win in November. The campaign has begun running cable and digital ads in Super Tuesday states
Several Haley supporters addressed DailyMail.com the day before the primaries that the odds heading into the South Carolina primary were against Haley, as was the nomination. But they praised her for sticking to it.
“In my opinion, she’s going to be done, and I think she feels that way just by listening to her,” longtime Republican voter Barbara Bates said of Haley’s future in Republican politics. “She burns bridges.”
When it comes to the general election, winning the home state doesn’t prove to be as crucial as it is in the primaries, but in recent years that has been the case more often than not.
Only four presidents in history have lost their home state and subsequently become president. They were James Polk, Woodrow Wilson, Richard Nixon and most recently Donald Trump.