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“Fighting for America,” says Nikki Haley after SC defeat
Former President Donald Trump solidly beat the former South Carolina governor
Republican Presidential candidate Nikki Haley took her mother Raj Kaur Randhawa to the polls Feb. 24 in her home state of South Carolina. / X/@NikkiHaley
Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley faced defeat in the Republican presidential primary held in her home state of South Carolina on Feb.24.
News organizations called the race early, in favor of former President Donald Trump. With just 13 percent of the votes counted shortly after polls closed, The Associated Press, The New York Times, Fox News and other media had already delivered a crushing blow to Haley.
At 8:30 Eastern Time, with 46 percent of votes in, Trump had amassed almost 60 percent of all votes — over 210,000 — while Haley trailed with less than 40 percent of the vote in her home state: almost 148,000.
Haley, who took her mother, Raj Kaur Randhawa to the voting booth for the primary, took to X, formerly Twitter, to state why she was still in the race. “I’m the proud daughter of legal immigrants from a small rural town in South Carolina.”
“My mother was a lawyer in India, and one of the first women to be selected to sit on the court. But because of the times, she never had the opportunity,” wrote Haley.
“Today, I got to stand by her as she cast her vote for her child to be president of the United States. And her grandchild got to vote for his mom.We are blessed to live in America,” Haley maintained.
“I’m fighting for America. I think we have a country to save. And that’s why I’m not letting my foot off the gas pedal,” she told Fox News as race results rolled in. Haley said she was heading to Michigan, which will hold its primary on Feb. 27, and then to the 15 Super Tuesday states, including California, which will hold their primaries March 5. The candidate firmly indicated she intends to stay in the race.
Republican political strategist Rina Shah told New India Abroad, “Haley should remain in the race, despite the loss in her native South Carolina.Tonight’s result does not indicate a seismic shift in the race. That will only come on Super Tuesday.”
Shah noted that while it may be mathematically impossible to catch up to Trump in terms of delegate allotment, Haley should nonetheless see her race through until then.
Trump faces 91 felony counts, any of which could result in a prison sentence. He has been ordered to pay $350 million in a civil fraud case, and $80 million to writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of raping her.
Shah said the support Trump enjoys comes from his “Make America Great Again” base. “They will turn out to vote in primaries because they despise Biden and Harris.”
“They mobilize due to their fear of illegal migration and the crisis at the Southern Border, as well as their anger about the economy and the cost of life getting higher under the Biden Administration,” said Shah. “These are the people who will forgive Trump for anything, and feel there is a Deep State conspiracy to keep him out of the White House,” she added.
Though a large number of Indian Americans live in South Carolina, Harini Krishnan, National Organizing Chair of South Asians for America, told New India Abroad that identity politics played a negligible role in voting results here. “This is a governor who has demonized immigrants. This is somebody who has gone on record saying she will be okay with a federal abortion ban. And Indian Americans and South Asians care about that, and they care about the fact that this is a person who has courted the NRA and who has been courted by the NRA,” said Krishnan.
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