Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has announced she will deliver a “state of the race” speech on Feb. 20. But at the close of a speech on Feb. 19, she appeared set on silencing speculation that she will drop out then or after the Saturday, Feb. 24 South Carolina primary.
“I promise you this: on Sunday, I’m headed to Michigan. And then, we’re headed to Super Tuesday states. And we’re gonna keep on going,” she said to a crowd at the Cannon Centre, a wedding venue in Greer, South Carolina, in the northwest corner of the state.
Michigan holds the next Republican presidential primary on Feb. 27.
Early voting for the South Carolina primary has already started. It lasts until Feb. 22. Ms. Haley encouraged her followers to take advantage of the option in Greer.
“You go in, you go out. It’s really easy,” she said.
The former governor, who also served as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has come under increasing pressure from many conservatives to drop out of the race and make room for her only remaining serious competitor on the Republican side, frontrunner and former President Donald Trump.
Those critics include at least one attendee of the Greer event, Carrie Eccles. She attended with her husband, Chris.
She speculated that Ms. Haley’s continued presence in the race was “meant to draw as much money out of the Trump campaign as possible.”
“She’s irrelevant,” Ms. Eccles told The Epoch Times.
But most who came to hear Ms. Haley speak were enthusiastic defenders of her. One was Mason Southern, who was holding a sign for the candidate.
Like some Haley supporters who have spoken with The Epoch Times, Mr. Southern said he would vote for incumbent President Joe Biden over President Trump. He said he believes President Trump would lead the United States as a “dictatorship.”
He said that if Ms. Haley were to drop out of the Republican race and run on with the “No Labels” party, he would support her against President Biden.
Ms. Haley’s state of the race speech, whatever its contents may be, will take place Feb. 20 at noon at Clemson University in Greenville, South Carolina, less than 14 miles away from the Cannon Centre.
That’s not long before President Trump arrives in Greer ahead of a town hall with Laura Ingraham on Fox News.
Ms. Haley took the opportunity in Greer to criticize President Trump’s comment on NATO members’ financial support for the alliance at a rally in Conway.
“Putin made no bones about wanting to destroy America, and he’s gonna side with him over our allies who stood with us after 9/11? In that one moment, he put all of our allies in danger,” Ms. Haley said in response.
The former governor also referred to her husband Michael’s military service. Mr. Haley is currently deployed with the South Carolina Army National Guard in Africa.
While Mr. Haley was absent, Ms. Haley’s children, Rena and Nalin, were there in Greer.
