After a symbolic snub in Nevada\u2019s primary, Nikki Haley\u2019s presidential campaign headed Wednesday to California, where she faces another longshot bid against former President Donald Trump and again sought to tamp down any talk that she might leave the race. \u201cI\u2019m not going anywhere. I\u2019m in this for the long haul,\u201d Haley said to cheers during an indoor rally in Los Angeles\u2019 historic Hollywood neighborhood, where she did not mention the embarrassing Nevada outcome.<\/p>\n
With mail voting underway in California, supporters who turned out on a rainy night were eager for Haley to continue her one-on-one rivalry with Trump and shrugged off the Nevada setback as insignificant and soon to be forgotten. \u201cI hope she fights,\u201d said Democratic voter Steven Whiddon, who works in film and TV production. Though he can\u2019t vote in the state GOP primary, which is open only to registered Republican voters, he\u2019s backing Haley because \u201cshe\u2019s sane, she\u2019s practical.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nevada vote was \u201ccompletely rigged by Trump supporters,\u201d he said. Haley \u201cdidn\u2019t lose a thing.\u201d As the GOP contest has winnowed to two major candidates, Haley has embraced the role of defiant Trump foil and self-styled establishment outsider. Another Trump term in the White House, she warns, would bring the nation \u201cchaos.\u201d<\/p>\n
A day earlier, the former U.N. ambassador \u2013 the last major rival contesting Trump\u2019s ascent to the nomination \u2013 was stung in Nevada, where GOP voters overwhelmingly chose a \u201cnone of these candidates\u201d option on the ballot, bypassing Haley in what amounted to a public rebuke. It was a token vote, however \u2013 the primary didn\u2019t award any delegates needed to secure the GOP nomination and Haley did not campaign in Nevada after contending that Trump allies rigged the rules in his favor.<\/p>\n
Haley supporter Sheldon Kay said she needs to change direction and try to engage Trump supporters on issues like immigration and the economy, rather than relentlessly criticize the former president. He said the friction with Trump supporters was behind her finish in Nevada. She \u201cneeds to peel away some of the Trump loyalists,\u201d said Kay, a retired psychologist. Her message \u201cis falling on deaf ears with the people she needs to persuade.\u201d \u201cShe needs to do that to have any chance,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Wayne Watkins, who lives in Upland, east of Los Angeles, said he changed parties from independent to Republican to vote for Haley, drawn to her moderate brand of politics. He said he recognizes she faces long odds but worries that Trump\u2019s legal problems could doom a general election campaign. For Haley, \u201cQuitting gets you nothing at this point,\u201d said Watkins, who also is volunteering for the campaign.<\/p>\n
By staying in the race there is the \u201cpossibility of success.\u201d Her campaign says it raised $16.5 million in January and argues that she, not Trump, would be the stronger general election candidate. Trump didn\u2019t compete in the Nevada primary and instead focused on the state\u2019s Thursday caucuses, where he is expected to claim all 26 of delegates in play. Trump also is strongly favored in California, where the primary election concludes March 5 \u2013 so-called Super Tuesday, when the state will be among more than a dozen holding elections. It\u2019s possible he could sweep the state\u2019s trove of 169 delegates, the biggest prize in the nominating contest.<\/p>\n
Heavily Democratic California probably will be an afterthought in November 2024 \u2013 the state\u2019s lopsided electorate makes it a virtual lock for Democrats on Election Day. The last Republican presidential nominee to carry the state was George H.W. Bush in 1988.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After a symbolic snub in Nevada\u2019s primary, Nikki Haley\u2019s presidential campaign headed Wednesday to California, where she faces another longshot\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":30591,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[727,8473,168,510,296,8269],"class_list":["post-30590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-california","tag-campaigning","tag-donald-trump","tag-nevada","tag-nikki-haley","tag-republican-presidential-nomination"],"reading_time":"3 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/usa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}