Trump enters South Carolina’s Republican primary looking to embarrass Haley in her home state
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Former President Donald Trump is looking to win his fourth straight primary against Nikki Haley in South Carolina on Saturday, aiming to embarrass his home state before his last remaining major rival for the Republican nomination.
Trump entered the primaries with a huge lead in the polls and the support of the state’s top Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott, a former rival in the race. Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador under Trump, has spent weeks touring the state that has twice elected its governor, warning that the dominant front-runner, who is 77 and faces four indictments, is too old and distracted to run for president again are.
In every primary since 1980, the Republican winner in South Carolina has become the party’s nominee. But Haley has repeatedly vowed to keep going if she loses her home state, even as Trump positions himself for a likely general election rematch against President Joe Biden.
Trump’s base, including those who previously supported Haley during her time as governor, seemed confident the former president would pull off a solid victory on Saturday.
“I supported her when she was governor. She has done some good things,” said Davis Paul, 36, as he waited for Trump at a recent rally in Conway. “But I just don’t think she’s ready to take on a candidate like Trump. I don’t think many people can do that.”
Trump has invaded the state for a handful of large rallies between fundraisers and events in other states, including Michigan, where the Republican primaries will be held on Tuesday.
He has drawn much larger crowds and campaigned with Gov. Henry McMaster, who succeeded Haley, and Scott, whom Haley elevated to the Senate.
During his speech Friday in Rock Hill, Trump accused Haley of staying in the race to hurt him at the behest of Democratic donors.
“All she’s trying to do is hurt us so they can win in November,” he said. “We’re not going to let that happen.”
At some of those meetings, Trump has made comments that gave Haley more fodder for her stump speeches, such as his Feb. 10 question about why her husband — who is currently on a South Carolina Army National Guard deployment in Africa — isn’t with had run her campaign. her. Haley has turned that point into an argument that the frontrunner disrespects service members and their families, a criticism that long followed Trump when he returned to his suggestion that the late Sen. John McCain, a prisoner of war in Vietnam, was not. a hero because he was captured.
That same evening, Trump claimed he would encourage countries like Russia to “do whatever they want” against NATO member states that failed to meet the transatlantic alliance’s defense spending targets. Haley has cast that moment as evidence that Trump is too volatile and becomes “weak in the knees when it comes to Russia.”
After one of Haley’s events, Terry Sullivan, a U.S. Navy veteran who lives in Hopkins, said he planned to support Trump but changed his mind after hearing Haley’s criticism of his NATO comments.
“One country can say whatever it wants, but when you have an agreement between other countries, we have to join the agreements of other countries, not just on our own,” Sullivan said. “After listening to Nikki, I think I’m a Nikki supporter now.”
Haley made an indirect appeal to Democrats who attended their own presidential primaries in large numbers earlier this month, adding a line in her speech that “anyone can vote in these primaries as long as they haven’t voted on February 3.” Democrat primary.”
Some of those voters have appeared at her events and said that while they planned to vote for Biden in the general election, they planned to cross over into the Republican Party’s primaries on Saturday as a way to now oppose to oppose Trump.
In any other campaign cycle, losing the home state can be detrimental to a campaign. In 2016, Sen. Marco Rubio quit shortly after losing Florida in a blowout against Trump, after his campaign argued that the political winds would shift in his favor once the campaign moved to his home state.
And Haley’s campaign can’t name a state in which they think she will prevail over Trump.
But in a speech this week in Greenville, Haley said she would stay in the campaign “until the last person votes,” arguing that those whose contests come after the early primaries and caucuses deserved the right to choose between candidates.
Haley also used that speech — which many took to be an announcement that she was suspending her campaign — to argue that she “doesn’t feel the need to kiss the ring,” as others had done, possibly with the prospect of serving as running mate of To serve Trump in mind.
“I am not afraid of Trump’s retaliation,” Haley reiterated. ‘I don’t look for anything from him. My own political future is of no importance.”
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Weissert reported from Washington.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP and Will Weissert can be reached at https://twitter.com/apwillweissert.