Nikki Haley said that she does not need to “hop a state” when reacting to the news that her presidential opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, was headed to her home state before the New Hampshire primaries.
“We’re going to do this one at a time. We played hard in Iowa. We’re playing hard in New Hampshire. We’re going to play hard in South Carolina. We’re going to keep on going. We don’t have to hop a state,” Haley said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “We’re going to play them all, and we’re going to make sure that we fight to earn every single vote.”
The two-term South Carolina governor who later served as ambassador to the United Nations in the Trump administration said that while she welcomes DeSantis to her home state of South Carolina, she thinks it’s “a mistake.”
“I think it’s a mistake to ignore New Hampshire that way,” Haley said. “But I welcome him to South Carolina if he wants.”
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Haley’s pointed remarks toward the Florida Governor come after DeSantis’ campaign announced that he would head to Greenville, South Carolina, where he’ll hold one rally on Tuesday morning.
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DeSantis later told Fox News that he would head later in the day to New Hampshire, which holds the first primary and second overall contest in the GOP nominating calendar on Jan. 23, eight days after the Iowa caucuses.
Typically, Republican candidates transition to campaigning in New Hampshire following Monday’s Iowa caucuses.
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South Carolina – another crucial early voting state – holds the first southern primary in the Republican schedule on Feb. 24.
On Saturday night, the final Des Moines Register/Mediacom/NBC News poll of likely Republican caucusgoers was released.
Trump stands at 48% support in the poll, with Haley at 20% and DeSantis at 16%.
Multimillionaire biotech entrepreneur and first-time candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, who has relentlessly campaigned across the Hawkeye State the past couple of months, stands at 8% support in the poll.
The survey, conducted by longtime pollster Ann Selzer, has a well-earned tradition of accuracy in past GOP presidential caucuses, and is considered by many as the gold standard in Iowa polling.
