Who is Nikki Haley, Republican who is challenging Trump's candidacy for US President?
The Republican Party primaries in South Carolina this Saturday (24th) in the United States will be crucial in deciding who will be the party's candidate in the American presidential elections scheduled for November 5th.
There are only two politicians running for the Republican Party's presidential nomination:
- Donald Trump, former President of the USA.
- Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina.
Trump is the favorite among the candidates for the Republican Party nomination. He has won the other phases of the Republican primaries so far (in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada), but they are smaller states with smaller numbers of delegates.
Why is this vote important?
The bestcase scenario for her is a performance that allows her to reach the big day of the primaries: Super Tuesday, March 5, when 15 states vote.
Polls show she is most likely to lose, even though she was governor of South Carolina.
Can Donald Trump win in a landslide?
The goal of Nikki Haley's campaign was to increase her vote in the first three states and then win South Carolina.
She recently changed those plans. She no longer assumes she will win; Now he says he's improved a lot and will compete on Super Tuesday.
“There were 14 candidates in this race, I defeated another 12, I just have one more to catch up,” she said.
Former President Trump declared that he would win a big victory and, referring to his opponent, said that “everyone knows” he can't lose in his own state.
voters of the opposing party
The voting rules in different US states vary greatly. In South Carolina, there is no formal party affiliation and primaries are open to all voters.
The only people who cannot vote are those who have already participated in Joe Biden's Democratic Party primaries, which took place on February 3rd.
There are an estimated 500,000 Democratic Party voters in South Carolina, but only 126,000 voted in the Democratic Party primary this year.
Therefore, a portion of the Democratic Party electorate could, at least in theory, vote against Donald Trump in the Republican Party primaries.
Haley hasn't asked for these voters' votes, but she's dropping hints: In her speeches, she mentions that she's trying to build a coalition and that the state's primaries are open.
Nikki Haley tries to talk to everyone
In her election campaign, she presented herself as a conservative, but gave several nods to more progressive voters:
- She mentions that as governor, she advocated tax cuts and passed laws that made voter identification stricter (those are two conservative flags in the US).
- She also recalls having a Confederate flag removed from government buildings after a racist attack on a church in 2015 progressives are uncomfortable with the Confederate flag, which represented the Southern states during the US Civil War.
- She describes Trump as a chaotic and outdated politician.
- At the same time, she states that she was proud to be US Ambassador to the United Nations during his term.
- She says she is “prolife” that is, against abortion rights.
- However, he also says that “he does not condemn anyone who is 'prochoice' and does not call for the end of abortion rights in the country.”
How will the candidates view the results?
Haley had 43% of the vote in New Hampshire and celebrated like she had won. Trump became angry and accused her of lying to voters.
Since then he has been milder. In an interview on Fox News, he was asked why Haley hadn't given up the race yet. He responded that he thought she “didn’t know how to get out.”
Haley said she will drop out of the race for the Republican Party nomination until at least Super Tuesday, perhaps even longer.
1 of 1 Montage shows Donald Trump and Nikki Haley Photo: Portal Montage shows Donald Trump and Nikki Haley Photo: Portal
Longer previous disputes
Recently, there have been cases of previous disputes that have already been decided in practice but are not officially ended. In the USA there is discussion about whether this could hinder the candidate.
In 2016, secondplace Democrat Bernie Sanders refused to formally withdraw from the election, even though his opponent Hillary Clinton already had enough delegates to be considered the winner.
Hillary won the primary but lost the election to Donald Trump. Political analysts say the drawnout election against Bernie Sanders was one of the factors that led to Hillary losing to Trump.
The same year, 2016, that Donald Trump won the nomination, Ted Cruz of the Republican Party took a long time to acknowledge his defeat. Despite this, Trump defeated Hillary in the election.
In 2020, the Democratic Party's Joe Biden won a significant lead in March but still faced many skeptics within his party, particularly on the left. The delay in the definition did not hurt him in the general election, which he won against Donald Trump.