Nikki goes to war with the RNC over plan to name Trump the ‘presumptive’ nominee: Haley lashes out over resolution to make party focus on the general election while she’s still in the race

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s campaign on Thursday lashed out at a plot to have the Republican National Committee declare former President Donald Trump the presumptive nominee before he could gather a majority of delegates.

After losing Iowa and New Hampshire to Trump, Haley said Tuesday night that she would move on and bring the 2024 primaries to her home state of South Carolina, where the Republican primaries will be held on February 24.

The move infuriated Trump and motivated one of his allies, David Bossie, an RNC commissioner from Maryland, to draft a resolution that, if approved, would consider the ex-president as the presumptive nominee even if the primary battle continues.

“Who cares what the RNC says?” Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas told The Dispatch, who first reported Bossie’s maneuver. “We’re letting millions of Republican voters across the country decide who should be our party’s nominee, not a bunch of Washington insiders.”

Perez-Cubas continued, “If Ronna McDaniel wants to be helpful, she can host a debate in South Carolina, unless she’s also worried that Trump can’t handle being on stage for 90 minutes with Nikki Haley.”

David Bossie, an ally of former President Donald Trump and an RNC commissioner from Maryland, has introduced a draft resolution that would have the Republican National Committee consider Trump as the presumptive nominee despite him not yet collecting half of the delegates

The Dispatch reported that a vote on the resolution could take place as early as the RNC’s 2024 Winter Meeting, which will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, from January 30 to February 3.

RNC spokesman Keith Schipper confirmed that timeline to DailyMail.com.

“Resolutions like this are brought forward by members of the RNC. Chairman McDaniel does not come up with resolutions,” Schipper clarified. “This will be taken up by the Resolution Committee and they will decide whether this resolution will be put to a vote by the 168 RNC members at our annual meeting next week.”

Under current RNC rules, Trump would still need to garner a majority of delegates — 1,215 — to become the party’s true presumptive nominee.

After the first two contests, the ex-president has 32 delegates to Haley’s 17.

But passing the resolution could allow the national party to openly work with the Trump campaign.

RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel has already said she believes Haley should drop out of the race so Republicans can focus on November’s general election against Democratic President Joe Biden.

Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel said on Fox News Channel Tuesday night that she believed the “eventual nominee” would be former President Donald Trump.

Former President Donald Trump dances on stage during his victory party in Nashua, New Hampshire, on Tuesday evening. He won the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries, but became enraged by the former UN ambassador. Nikki Haley’s decision to stay in the 2024 race

During an appearance on Fox News Channel Tuesday night — after New Hampshire was called for Trump — McDaniel said that “looking at the math and the path forward … I don’t see it for Nikki Haley.”

“I think she ran a great campaign,” McDaniel continued. “But I do think there is a message from voters that is very clear: we need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is Donald Trump, and we need to make sure we beat Joe Biden. ‘

McDaniel’s comments irritated at least one former staffer, Brittany Martinez, the former deputy director of Hispanic media for the Republican Party who also worked for former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

“Former RNC employee here. Funny how I thought the RNC wasn’t allowed to interfere in primaries?’ Martinez commented on X on Wednesdaywho shares the McDaniel Fox clip.

“Instead of trying to rig the race now, why don’t they focus their efforts on urging Trump to debate Nikki and also sign the RNC nominee’s loyalty pledge? He did neither,” Martinez also said.

Trump refused to debate his Republican rivals, while Haley attended all the primary debates, although he declined to have another one-on-one debate against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis after the two feuded in Iowa earlier this month had had.

That meant that two primary debates scheduled to take place in New Hampshire were canceled.

DeSantis shockingly withdrew from the presidential race on Sunday, ahead of Tuesday’s Granite State vote, and endorsed Trump, turning the race into a showdown between the ex-president and his former UN ambassador.

The RNC’s 2024 winter meeting in Las Vegas will take place before any more votes are cast.

It comes days before the Republican primaries go to the polls – including in Nevada.

But due to a bizarre rift between state lawmakers and the Trump-aligned Republican Party of Nevada, both a Republican primary and a caucus will take place in Nevada in early February, and only the winner of the caucus will receive delegates for the nomination.

Because Haley is participating in the primaries and not the caucus, this means that all of Nevada’s delegates will go to Trump.

Once Nevada concludes, 26 more delegates (out of 2,429) will be awarded.