Haley positioning herself as 'alternative candidate' to embattled Trump or as 'frontrunner for 2028'
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00:00 Let's keep talking about this now because Professor David Darmofal is Deputy Vice Chair
00:04 of Political Science at the University of South Carolina in Columbia.
00:07 Professor, thanks very much for your time with us here on France 24.
00:11 We heard that Nikki Haley there saying that she is going to stay in the race.
00:15 But let's put it bluntly, given the numbers she's polling and the results so far, what's
00:19 the point?
00:21 Yes, this is a pretty significant margin of victory for former President Trump here in
00:27 South Carolina.
00:28 And so there is the question as to whether former Governor Haley should continue.
00:33 She said she's going to continue for another 20 states through Super Tuesday.
00:38 But there aren't a lot of upcoming states where she stands a good chance of doing well
00:43 and coming close to former President Trump.
00:45 And as a consequence, while former President Trump is not the presumptive nominee necessarily
00:51 tonight, clearly his margin is strong.
00:54 It may grow throughout the night and there will continue to be calls for former Governor
00:58 Haley to drop out of the race.
01:00 And Trump, of course, is having a world of legal troubles at the moment.
01:04 He's back in court in March.
01:06 And are all of these a factor for Haley?
01:10 If anything happens that prevents him from running in November, she's still there.
01:14 Yes.
01:15 And that is the issue.
01:16 And that is why some believe that former Governor Haley is continuing to run in this primary,
01:22 that if former President Trump faced an early conviction that she would be the alternative
01:28 then.
01:29 She has created a delegate selection team and she's focused on trying to get delegates,
01:36 identify people who would be delegates for her for the convention this summer.
01:41 And that suggests that that might be a part of her calculus, that she is considering herself
01:46 as an alternative if there is a conviction for former President Trump.
01:50 And of course, we saw in January record number of record record contribution for her campaign
01:55 funding, 16.5 million dollars.
01:58 With this result from South Carolina, do we expect that support to continue?
02:04 She has strong backing from traditional sort of establishment Republicans from the Koch
02:10 Brothers Network and the like.
02:12 I do believe that one of the underreported stories of this Republican primary race is
02:18 former President Trump's difficulties in terms of fundraising.
02:21 And then with the funds that he is raising, a significant portion of those are going,
02:27 he's spending them on his legal fees.
02:28 So he's not doing particularly well in fundraising, did not do as well as she did.
02:33 And the money he is raising, he's spending some of it on his legal fees.
02:36 So I expect that she might be able to continue to gain resources, fundraising dollars from
02:43 people in the Republican Party who oppose former President Trump and his potential nomination.
02:48 And another suggestion for Haley staying in the race, despite the losses, is perhaps she
02:52 has an eye on 2028.
02:54 Is that looking likely to you?
02:57 That is another argument, like you said, as to why she would want to continue.
03:01 That the further she can continue, if she can start closing that margin on Trump, that
03:07 sets her up well for 2028.
03:10 And potentially, if he were to lose in November, she might well then be the frontrunner going
03:15 into 2028.
03:17 And so that is potentially part of the reason why she is indeed staying in this race.
03:21 All right.
03:22 For the moment, Professor David Darmofeld, deputy vice chair of political science at
03:27 the University of South Carolina, thank you very much for your time.
03:31 Thanks for having me.