HOUSTON, US 

Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is continuing her bid for the Republican presidential nomination even though she trails former President Donald Trump by a wide margin in most, if not all, polls.

Trump is seemingly on course to face incumbent President Joe Biden later this year, a rematch of the 2020 election that Trump still claims was stolen.

But Haley has been steadfast, if not outrightly stubborn and defiant, continuing her battle for the White House despite the overwhelming odds she faces against Trump, attacking the former president as if she were the candidate in the lead.

For David Darmofal, a political science professor at the University of South Carolina, Haley’s strategy at the moment is “not completely clear,” but it might be that she is “staying in the race in case Trump is convicted in one of the criminal cases he is facing.”

While Haley has not come out and said that, she did allude to Trump’s legal situation in an interview with CNN on Sunday.

She said Trump was “going to be spending more time in a courtroom than he’s going to be spending on the campaign trail,” a reference to the 91 federal and state charges the former president is facing.

The 44 federal counts are regarding his alleged involvement in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots and his role in keeping classified documents found at his Florida estate.

The 47 state charges include Trump allegedly falsifying business records in the state of New York, as well as his role in allegedly trying to overturn the 2020 election results in the state of Georgia.

“We need a president that’s going to give us eight years of focus and discipline, not one that’s going to be sitting there ranting about how he’s a victim,” Haley continued.

A last stand?

Speculation aside about Trump’s legal situation, Darmofal, like many political analysts, believes that Haley may be making a last stand at the Feb. 24 primary in her home state of South Carolina.

“The closer that Haley is able to get to Trump in the results in South Carolina, the better her prospects going forward will be,” he continued.

But Darmofal pointed to a Washington Post and Monmouth University poll released last week that showed Haley, a former US ambassador to the UN, losing to Trump in South Carolina by a wide margin of 58-32.

An average of all the polls taken in South Carolina has Haley losing by an even bigger gap of 63-32.

“A key reason that Haley is trailing Trump so badly in South Carolina is that the voters who propelled her to the governorship back in 2010, on the strength of Sarah Palin’s endorsement of her in the primary, are now Trump’s base,” explained Darmofal.

That does not bode well for Haley, who placed third in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15 with 19% of the vote, behind Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who came in second with 21%.

Trump easily beat both with 51% of the vote. DeSantis has since dropped out of the race.

Haley also lost to Trump by a 54-43 margin in the New Hampshire primary on Jan. 23, which was significant, according to Darmofal.

“In many ways, New Hampshire was the ideal state demographically for Haley with its large pools of college-educated, moderate and independent voters, and yet she was still not able to break through there. Most states going forward will not have those same positive demographics for Haley’s campaign,” he said.

Haley has brushed off any notion that she will drop out of the campaign if she does not win in her home state, telling ABC News on Sunday that a win in South Carolina is not necessary for her to beat Trump and that she intends to stay in the race even if she finishes second.

‘A significant uphill battle’

Whatever the result in South Carolina, Darmofal believes it will be a significant challenge for Haley to somehow pull ahead of the former president.

Haley, however, is not letting any talk of Trump running away with the nomination deter her from telling voters that she is the better choice.

“(Trump) hasn’t once talked about the American people. And that’s a problem,” she told CNN.

Even though Haley has claimed that her campaign is not an “anti-Trump” movement, she has constantly barraged the former president with insults about his character and disparaging remarks about his age, 77, his mental acuity, or lack thereof, comparing him to Biden, who is 81.

“I don’t think we need to have two 80-year-olds sitting in the White House when we’ve basically got to make sure that we can handle the war situation ... that we’re in,” she said in a CNN interview last month.

“We need to know they’re at the top of their game, we need to know that they can take care of our national security and our economy. Right now, I don’t know that people feel like that with either one.”

Where Haley’s campaign goes over the next several weeks and months remains to be seen, but if she does drop out of the race, Darmofal does not see a likelihood of Trump tapping her as his vice president.

“In a recent appearance, Trump seemed to come very close to ruling out Haley as his running mate. Given this, it seems unlikely that he will choose Haley,” he said.

“I wouldn’t forecast who the vice presidential pick will be, but several names have been floated as possibilities, including Kristi Noem, J.D. Vance, Elise Stefanik, and Tim Scott.”

That does not seem to be a concern for Haley right now.

Her focus is on becoming the next Republican presidential nominee, even if it means putting the horse blinders on and trudging ahead with what appears to be a continual second-place campaign.

“She will face a significant uphill battle because of the Republican base voter support for Trump,” said Darmofal.