Haley on Trump: ‘This is not a coronation. This is an election.’

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley deflected the notion that the viability of her campaign’s success hinges on New Hampshire on Monday, calling out the “political class” for crowning former President Trump as the GOP nominee and saying, “This is not a coronation. This is an election.”

During an interview with NewsNation’s Leland Vittert in New Hampshire, the former United Nations ambassador said “it’s never been fair” to say that her campaign’s success is riding on the Granite State’s first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday.

She pointed to her steady climb in Iowa in the polls ahead of last week’s caucuses; she finished third in the Hawkeye State, just behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), who dropped out Sunday. 

“It’s never been fair,” Haley said Monday. “You know, I said I needed to be strong in Iowa. We started at 2 percent. We ended at 20. I need to be stronger in New Hampshire; I think we’ll do that tomorrow. And then I need to be stronger than that in South Carolina.”  

Trump had a dominant showing in Iowa, winning by more than 30 points and creating momentum that could be bolstered Tuesday with the news of DeSantis dropping out and endorsing the former president. 

On Monday, Haley cautioned that Trump won “only” 1.5 percent of the vote in Iowa, a state of more than 3 million people, and that the victory does not represent the broader voting electorate. 

“The one thing we have to remember is Donald Trump only won with one-and-a-half percent of the vote in Iowa; 56,000 people voted for him out of the state of 3 million,” Haley said. “That’s not representative of the country. And you’ve got the political class saying, ‘Oh, it’s him. It’s got to be him.’ No, this is not a coronation. This is an election.”  

The former South Carolina governor said her campaign is focused on doing well “one” state “at a time” and gave a reminder that her home state, where she hopes to have a strong performance, is coming up soon on the GOP electoral schedule. 

“And you go state-by-state; you’re trying to get representation of real normal people,” Haley said. “And that’s what we’re focused on. We’re going to take it one step at a time. And then we’re headed to my sweet state of South Carolina.”

Haley, like Trump, is looking to build on her own momentum and pull an upset in the Tuesday primary. Now, locked into a one-on-one match-up with Trump, she is trailing him by 13.8 percent in the latest The Hill/Decision Desk HQ aggregate of polls. 

Her campaign has also benefited from DeSantis’s exit, raising more than $500,000 in less than 24 hours and is already looking to make a statement in her home state, even with a second-place finish in New Hampshire. The campaign announced a $4 million South Carolina ad buy, which will kick off a day after the Granite State primary and cover all seven Palmetto State markets.