Haley Heads Towards Another Heavy Defeat In South Carolina GOP Primary

Nikki Haley appears set to continue her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination despite the near-certainty of another heavy defeat to former President Donald Trump at Saturday’s Republican presidential primary election in her home state of South Carolina.

• The New York Times reports: “Haley is showing no signs of relenting. She is still raking in donations and building out her national footprint, as she pledges to move her party past former President Donald Trump.”
• Haley said at a campaign event in Texas on Friday: “[Trump] said he’s going to spend more time in a courtroom than he is going to be on the campaign trail. But... We are going to be on the campaign trail.”
• Haley will focus on independent voters in states with looser restrictions on who can vote in the GOP nomination process. A strategy which failed to deliver her a strong result in New Hampshire but may keep her campaign alive though Super Tuesday while Trump deals with legal threats to his candidacy.
• Reuters reports: “Haley's rationale for staying in the race will become harder to see if she's buried by Trump in South Carolina, after also losing to him in Iowa and New Hampshire. The pressure for her to drop out will come fast and hard. But Haley... may view the race as being about more than her. She speaks now for the bloc of Republican voters who can’t abide Trump.”
• According to 538, Trump is polling at 65% in South Carolina to Haley's 31%.