LOS ANGELES (AP) — After a symbolic snub in Nevada’s primary, Nikki Haley’s presidential marketing campaign headed Wednesday to California, the place she faces one other longshot bid in opposition to former President Donald Trump and once more sought to tamp down any discuss that she would possibly go away the race.
“I am not going anyplace. I am on this for the lengthy haul,” Haley mentioned to cheers throughout an indoor rally in Los Angeles’ historic Hollywood neighborhood, the place she didn’t point out the embarrassing Nevada consequence.
With mail voting underway in California, supporters who turned out on a wet night time have been anticipating Haley to proceed her one-on-one rivalry with Trump and shrugged off the Nevada setback as insignificant and shortly to be forgotten.
“I hope she fights,” mentioned Democratic voter Steven Whiddon, who works in movie and TV manufacturing. Although he can’t vote within the state GOP main, which is open solely to registered Republican voters, he’s backing Haley as a result of “she’s sane, she’s sensible.”
The Nevada vote was “fully rigged by Trump supporters,” he mentioned. Haley “didn’t lose a factor.”
Because the GOP contest has winnowed to 2 main candidates, Haley has embraced the position of defiant Trump foil and self-styled institution outsider. One other Trump time period within the White Home, she warns, would convey the nation “chaos.”
A day earlier, the previous U.N. ambassador — the final main rival contesting Trump’s ascent to the nomination — was stung in Nevada, the place GOP voters overwhelmingly selected a “none of these candidates” option on the poll, bypassing Haley in what amounted to a public rebuke.
It was a token vote, nevertheless – the first didn’t award any delegates wanted to safe the GOP nomination and Haley didn’t marketing campaign in Nevada after contending that Trump allies rigged the principles in his favor.
Haley supporter Sheldon Kay mentioned she wants to vary route and attempt to interact Trump supporters on points like immigration and the economic system, fairly than relentlessly criticize the previous president. He mentioned the friction with Trump supporters was behind her end in Nevada.
She “must peel away among the Trump loyalists,” mentioned Kay, a retired psychologist. Her message “is falling on deaf ears with the individuals she wants to steer.”
“She wants to try this to have any likelihood,” he added.
Wayne Watkins, who lives in Upland, east of Los Angeles, mentioned he modified events from impartial to Republican to vote for Haley, drawn to her average model of politics. He mentioned he acknowledges she faces lengthy odds however worries that Trump’s authorized issues might doom a normal election marketing campaign.
For Haley, “Quitting will get you nothing at this level,” mentioned Watkins, who is also volunteering for the marketing campaign. By staying within the race there may be the “chance of success.”
Her marketing campaign says it raised $16.5 million in January and argues that she, not Trump, could be the stronger normal election candidate.
Trump didn’t compete within the Nevada main and as an alternative targeted on the state’s Thursday caucuses, the place he’s anticipated to assert all 26 of delegates in play.
Trump is also strongly favored in California, the place the first election concludes March 5 — so-called Tremendous Tuesday, when the state might be amongst greater than a dozen holding elections. It is attainable he might sweep the state’s trove of 169 delegates, the most important prize within the nominating contest.
Closely Democratic California most likely might be an afterthought in November 2024 — the state’s lopsided voters makes it a digital lock for Democrats on Election Day. The final Republican presidential nominee to hold the state was George H.W. Bush in 1988.
