Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley on Monday shot down the idea of mounting an independent bid for the White House.
“I’ve been a conservative Republican my whole life. I’m not going to switch over and have a Democrat vice president. That’s not something I would do,” Haley said in an interview on Fox News on Monday, referencing a run with the organization No Labels that would pair her with a Democrat on the ticket. “My heart has always been with the Republican Party and this country. So that’s what I’m gonna do.”
Haley pushed back on Fox News host Martha MacCallum’s suggestion that Haley’s only two paths to victory are running on an independent ticket and staying in the race “just in case the Trump Train implodes, and you hope that you’ll be the alternative to that.”
“I’m sitting here focused on Super Tuesday states,” Haley said, when asked which of those two paths she is eyeing. “That’s what I’m going to do.”
Haley said she has not been approached by any political organization, including No Labels, which said this weekend they’d be interested in Haley to potentially lead a split-party ticket for the presidency this year.
“I’m a Republican. I have not talked to any other organization. I have not put a second of thought into an independent run because I’m a Republican. That’s what I’ve always been,” Haley said.
Haley’s defiance comes as her path to the GOP nomination narrows.
Haley outperformed polling predictions in the South Carolina primary this past weekend, but she still trailed the party front-runner, former President Trump, by about 20 points, approximately 60 percent support to 40 percent, in her home state.
Haley pledged, after conceding the South Carolina primary, that she would not drop out of the race, saying she thought it was important for GOP voters to have a choice between candidates, “not a Soviet-style election with only one candidate. And I have a duty to give them that choice.”
Still, the next day, the national director of the political organization No Labels said in an interview that they’re “looking for great quality people” to lead the independent ticket in 2024, and that “Nikki Haley is somebody [they’d] definitely be interested in.”