NORTH CHARLESTON, SC – Nikki Haley has criticized Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential campaign. But he’s taking the attacks and back-and-forth to a new level as he spends a month campaigning in South Carolina ahead of the state’s Feb. 24 primary.
He was greeted in his homeland by dozens of Trump supporters who protested in front of a rally he held here on Wednesday night. And Haley made as good as she got, forgoing her usual stump speech introduction to go after the former president directly at the top of her remarks on Wednesday.
“Bring it on, Donald,” he said, challenging the former president to the debate.
In his New Hampshire primary night victory speech, he took Trump’s attention to him, calling it a “confusion of zeal.”
“I know that’s what he does when he’s threatened, and he must certainly feel threatened,” she said, to cheers from the crowd of hundreds.
In another escalation, Haley, who said her campaign had raised $1 million online and in small-dollar donations in the 24 hours after her speech in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, raised funds for the first time on Thursday from Trump’s attacks.
In response to the former president’s threat on Truth Social that anyone who donates to Haley would be “permanently expelled from the MAGA camp,” the Haley campaign began selling “BARRED” T-shirts. PERMANENTLY.”
After an 11-point lead over Haley in the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, Haley expressed her intention to stay in the race despite growing calls for the Republican Party to rally and unify around Trump, saying: “The American people deserve better than what they got in these races. two options.”
“Listen, we only have two states that vote,” he said. “We have 48 more people who are eligible to vote.”
Haley’s campaign began airing ads in South Carolina on Wednesday, and her aligned super PAC, SFA Fund Inc., will begin a million-dollar ad buy in the state next week, according to a spokeswoman for the group. Both the campaign and the super PAC expressed optimism about Haley’s chances in the Feb. 27 Michigan primary and some of the 16 primaries on Super Tuesday, March 5, and expressed their intention to stay out of Haley’s home state primary. (Michigan Republicans have a hybrid system with both a primary and a March 2 caucus, with more delegates at stake in the caucus.)
On Thursday, the SFA Foundation announced that it has raised more than $50 million in the last six months of 2023, which could well fund an expanded campaign.
Despite Haley’s refusal to label herself a “moderate,” her campaign plans to continue meeting with the independents who helped her win more than 43% of the vote in the New Hampshire primary.
Campaign manager Betsy Ankney said in a memo released Tuesday that independents running in GOP primaries are “nothing new,” noting Trump’s critical support from independents when he first ran for president in 2016.
Ankney pointed out that “eleven of the 16 Super Tuesday states have open or semi-open primaries,” meaning voters who are not registered as Republicans can participate.
“These include Virginia, Texas, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina and Vermont, all with favorable demographics,” Ankney said. “After Super Tuesday, we’ll have a very good picture of where this race stands. … Until then, everyone should take a deep breath.”
But Mark Harris, chief strategist at SFA Fund Inc., noted that Haley needs to increase support from Republicans to win South Carolina.
“We need to work better with Republicans. We need to work better with conservatives,” he said. “We absolutely need to grow in these key demographics to give us a realistic path to the nomination.”