Despite losing her home state’s primary in a huge way, she’s soldiering on. So what does that mean for November?
Former South Carolina governor and presidential candidate Nikki Haley speaks at her electio-night watch party in Charleston on February 24, 2024. (Julia Nikhinson / AFP vit Getty Images)
At this point, I’m not sure whether I should admire Nikki Haley or worry about her.
If you squint, you could claim she lost South Carolina to Donald Trump by only 20 points. (OK, I think it’s technically 22, but we don’t have final numbers yet—so let’s say 20.)
She hadn’t expected to lose. In late January, after she lost to Trump by 11 points in New Hampshire, she predicted that she’d do better in her home state, even though South Carolina, in the heart of the old Confederacy, is still one of the Trumpiest and most racist states in the nation.
After her drubbing on Saturday—and we have to call it that, even if we say it was only 20 points—by the awful, but apparently unbeatable, Trump, Haley said she’d soldier on, at least through the Super Tuesday states.
“I know 40 percent is not 50 percent,” she acknowledged. Nevertheless, she persevered: “There are huge numbers of voters in our Republican primaries who are saying they want an alternative. I’m a woman of my word,” she said at an event in Charleston after the results came in. “They have the right to a real choice, not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate. And I have a duty to give them that choice,” she said.
“That is really something. This was a little sooner than we anticipated. It was an even bigger win than we anticipated,” Trump rambled in his victory speech. Then, when Trump introduced the state’s senior senator, Lindsey Graham—who has bowed lower to Trump than any politician I can think of—the crowd began to boo. Those folks are bloodthirsty.
It’s been a strange weekend for the GOP. Nazis mingled openly at CPAC. Trump gave an abysmal speech to Black conservatives in South Carolina Friday night, comparing himself to Black Americans. “I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time, and a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me, because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against, and they actually viewed me as I’m being discriminated against,” he said. “I’m being indicted for you, the Black population.” (He also said the $400 gold-painted sneakers he recently released would appeal to “inner-city” Black people.)
My readers know my favorite thing to write about is incontinent Democrats who are sure Biden should leave the race. I don’t understand why people aren’t more worried about Trump when they hear him say things like that. Because, despite all this, Trump kicked Haley’s butt on Saturday.
I know, I know. Please don’t go on social media to mansplain to me. He runs the party. Ronna Romney McDaniel had to drop her family name to please him, and he’s running her out of the Republican National Committee today anyway. And The New York Times exists solely to gaslight liberals. I get it.
Haley doesn’t seem to, though, and has apparently purchased ad time for the Super Tuesday races. Her campaign manager, Betsy Ankney, says they are “placing our faith in the American people,” according to Politico.
“We are willing to bet that they have a lot more courage than the political class, and even the media, who line up behind Trump, even though they know what a disaster he is,” Ankney said. “And we’re going to make our case until that door closes.”
I know that many important organizations are asking you to donate today, but this year especially, The Nation needs your support.
Over the course of 2025, the Trump administration has presided over a government designed to chill activism and dissent.
The Nation experienced its efforts to destroy press freedom firsthand in September, when Vice President JD Vance attacked our magazine. Vance was following Donald Trump’s lead—waging war on the media through a series of lawsuits against publications and broadcasters, all intended to intimidate those speaking truth to power.
The Nation will never yield to these menacing currents. We have survived for 160 years and we will continue challenging new forms of intimidation, just as we refused to bow to McCarthyism seven decades ago. But in this frightening media environment, we’re relying on you to help us fund journalism that effectively challenges Trump’s crude authoritarianism.
For today only, a generous donor is matching all gifts to The Nation up to $25,000. If we hit our goal this Giving Tuesday, that’s $50,000 for journalism with a sense of urgency.
With your support, we’ll continue to publish investigations that expose the administration’s corruption, analysis that sounds the alarm on AI’s unregulated capture of the military, and profiles of the inspiring stories of people who successfully take on the ICE terror machine.
We’ll also introduce you to the new faces and ideas in this progressive moment, just like we did with New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani. We will always believe that a more just tomorrow is in our power today.
Please, don’t miss this chance to double your impact. Donate to The Nation today.
Katrina vanden Heuvel
Editor and publisher, The Nation
I’m with Betsy Ankney about the media, so I’m fine if Haley stays in. (Although that’s also good for the media. And I’m fine with that, too, because the media might be in worse trouble than the GOP.)
Finally: Good news and bad news for Trump coming out of exit polls: Sixty-five percent of GOP primary voters believe Trump is fit to be president even if he is convicted of one of the 91 felony charges against him. On the other hand, 59 percent of Haley voters said they will not vote for him.
I know, that doesn’t matter in South Carolina, which is not a swing state. But it’s a picture of where Haley got her support, and it’s not from the majority of GOP voters. Still, I’d venture that it’s closer to the majority of American voters. Which is why I’m still feeling OK about November, despite the best efforts of Democrats to make me despair.
Joan WalshTwitterJoan Walsh, a national affairs correspondent for The Nation, is a coproducer of The Sit-In: Harry Belafonte Hosts The Tonight Show and the author of What’s the Matter With White People? Finding Our Way in the Next America. Her new book (with Nick Hanauer and Donald Cohen) is Corporate Bullsh*t: Exposing the Lies and Half-Truths That Protect Profit, Power and Wealth In America.