Haley declares race 'far from over' after losing to Trump in New Hampshire

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley defied calls Tuesday to drop out of the race for the Republican nomination, vowing to fight on after a second straight defeat by former President Donald J. Trump.

In stirring remarks, Ms. Haley looked ahead to the upcoming primary in South Carolina, where she is far behind Trump in the polls despite a home state advantage.

“New Hampshire is first in the country. It is not the last in the country. This race is far from over,” Ms. Haley said, adding, “We are going home to South Carolina.”

Borrowing signature lines from her speeches, Ms. Haley noted how far she had come since the start of the race, when she was polling at just over 2 percent and calling herself “a fighter.”

“And I'm sloppy. And now we are the last ones standing with Donald Trump,” she added.

Ms. Haley also pressed Mr. Trump, the dominant front-runner in the Republican race who is fighting 91 felony charges, criticizing him as being as bad for the country as another four years of President Biden. She also delved into Trump's mental condition and his 77 years of age.

“With Donald Trump you get one chaos after another,” she said. “This lawsuit, that controversy, this tweet, that senior moment. You can't solve Joe Biden's chaos with Republican chaos.”

In her final appearances in the Granite State before polls closed, Ms. Haley had rejected claims that Republican voters had already united firmly behind the former president, and vowed not to end her bid regardless of the outcome.

“I didn't get here because of luck,” she said at a polling place in Hampton, N.H., as she was flanked by supporters including Gov. Chris Sununu, her top surrogate in the state. “I came here because I outsmarted and outwitted the rest of those guys. So I'm taking on Donald Trump, and I'm not going to talk about an obituary.”

Speaking to supporters at his victory party, Mr Trump mocked Ms Haley for speaking “as if she had won”. But “she didn't win – she lost,” he added.

On Wednesday morning, Ms. Haley is expected to speak at a meeting of the Virgin Islands Republican State Committee, which is holding its race on February 8. She is next expected at a homecoming event in Charleston, SC.

A number of people close to Ms. Haley are encouraging her to continue, many deeply opposed to Mr. Trump becoming the nominee again.

Betsy Ankney, her campaign manager, released a memo early Tuesday morning writing down suggestions that Trump's path to the nomination was inevitable. She pointed to the 11 of the 16 states voting on Super Tuesday that have “open or semi-open primaries” that independent voters can be part of and are “fertile ground for Nikki.”

Nevada will host a Republican caucus on February 8, but Ms. Haley will not participate in that contest, but will participate in a Republican primary in the state two days earlier which does not allocate delegates.

Her campaign generated more than $1 million in television advertising from Tuesday through Feb. 6, according to AdImpact, a media tracking company.

And officials from her allied super PAC, Stand for America, said they too planned to make progress.

Mark Harris, the PAC's chief strategist, said it was preparing television, mail and digital ads in a get-out-the-vote effort that would be similar to the programs it shot in Iowa and New Hampshire, although as of Tuesday it had investments have not yet been made.

“We are in the process of candidacy for outsiders, so this was never going to all magically happen in one day, and so we will continue,” Mr. Harris said.

Since the summer, Ms. Haley has predicted that the Republican nominating contest would result in a showdown between herself and Mr. Trump in her home state. Her outward confidence in that scenario has not wavered — not after she failed to finish second in Iowa, not after her top rival for No. 2, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, dropped out and endorsed Mr. Trump, not after a series from South Carolina lawmakers joined Mr. Trump on the stump this week in the final days of the New Hampshire race.

Her message to his allies and the news media: She's been here before.

“I won South Carolina twice as governor,” she told reporters Friday at a retro restaurant in Amherst. “I think I know what the favorable area is in South Carolina.”

Maggie Haberman And Kellen Browning reporting contributed.