S.C.’s Haley hopes to stop Trump’s march in New Hampshire

MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) - Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley by a lot. Haley is the last major challenger standing in his way, and Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary is uniquely suited to her strengths.

But the answer for most conservatives is they want Trump to have another chance at beating President Joe Biden despite Trump’s 2020 election loss and the 91 felony charges he faces in four separate indictments. Haley is urging ers not to give up.

“America does not do coronations,” Haley said at a VFW hall in Franklin, ed by her daughter and son-in-law. “Let’s show all of the media class and the political class that we’ve got a different plan in mind, and let’s show the country what we can do.”

Haley on Saturday questioned whether Donald Trump is mentally capable of serving as president again after he repeatedly seemed to confuse her with former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in a campaign speech.

As she campaigned in Keene, New Hampshire, Haley referenced Trump’s speech the night before, in which he mistakenly asserted that Haley was in charge of Capitol security on January 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump ers stormed the building seeking to stop the certification of his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

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Trump first said that Haley turned down security offered by his istration on Jan. 6 and then again mentioned Haley, adding, “They destroyed all of the information, all of the evidence, everything, deleted and destroyed all of it.”

Trump, 77, has accused Pelosi of turning down security he says his istration offered, but a special House committee emed to probe the attack found no evidence to that claim.

“They’re saying he got confused, that he was talking about something else, he’s talking about Nancy Pelosi,” Haley said on Saturday.

“He mentioned me multiple times in that scenario. The concern I have is — I’m not saying anything derogatory — but when you’re dealing with the pressures of the presidency, we can’t have someone else that we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this,” Haley said. “We can’t.”

Since entering the GOP race nearly a year ago, Haley, 52, has advocated for “mental competency tests” for older politicians, a swipe at the ages of both Trump and Biden.

Trump planned to hold his last rally before the election Monday night. He started the day in New York for his defamation trial after an earlier jury determined he had sexually abused a columnist in the 1990s, but the session was canceled due to a juror’s illness.

Trump was being ed on stage Monday night by three of his former opponents who have now endorsed him: South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum. The show of force is part of a broader effort by Trump’s team to lock up the primary and demonstrate the party is rallying around him.

In an interview with Newsmax taped Sunday, Trump was asked if he would call for Haley to drop out.

“Well, I would never call for it, but perhaps she should,” he said. He called New Hampshire “a special place for me,” noting his win in the 2016 primary. “I love this state.”

On paper, Trump had seemed more vulnerable in New Hampshire than in any other early voting state on the primary calendar. Though voters here ed him by a wide margin in 2016, the state has long been known for its moderate tradition, including allowing und voters to participate in GOP primaries. And Haley had been on the rise, prompting Trump’s campaign and its allies to spend millions trying to blunt her momentum.

Thalia Flores, a former Democrat who manages retail stores, changed her voter registration to undeclared last fall and plans to vote in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary against Trump. She says she would Haley over President Joe Biden if given the chance, even though she has never before voted for a Republican presidential candidate.

But she said she was worried the primary was “a long shot” with not enough for Haley among traditional conservatives to beat Trump.

“What do the Republicans want?” Flores asked at a packed Haley rally over the weekend. “Are they diehard Trump or do they want the White House?”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis suspending his bid turned the state into the one-on-one contest between Trump and Haley that she and a long line of anti-Trump Republicans had said they wanted.

But some evidence suggests Trump could be better positioned to capitalize on DeSantis’ exit than Haley. According to AP VoteCast, DeSantis ers in Iowa overwhelmingly described themselves as conservative and Trump outperformed Haley 53% to 13% among that group.

DeSantis immediately endorsed Trump upon dropping out, saying it was clear to him Republican voters preferred the former president.

Never before has a presidential candidate won primary contests in both Iowa and New Hampshire and failed to secure the party’s presidential nomination.

“If she doesn’t win here, there’s no path for her whatsoever going forward,” said James Blair, national field director for the Trump campaign. “Republicans control the nominating process. They are with Donald Trump, growing every day. We see consolidation all over the place since Iowa.”