Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley insists the Republican presidential primary has become a “two-person race.”
After former President Donald Trump secured a dominating win in the Iowa caucuses, and Haley came in third place, she spoke to her supporters about the state of the race.
“At one point in this campaign, there were 14 of us running, I was at 2% in the polls,” she said, adding, “But tonight, Iowa did what Iowa always does so well. The pundits will analyze the results from every angle, we get that.”
However, Haley insisted, “When you look at how we’re doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, and beyond, I can safely say tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race.”
Watch the video below:
On Monday, Trump easily won the Iowa caucuses with a nearly 30-point margin. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) came in second with less than half the votes the former president received.
Haley apparently believes the polls in states like New Hampshire and South Carolina that show her in a not-super-close second place show the race will be between her and Trump — which seems a little wistful.
Granted, the 45th president did not sweep Iowa with 60% of the vote. If he did, Republicans would do better to just cancel the rest of the primaries and send the money they would have spent on the campaign to charity — not the front runner’s campaign since he has been spending donors’ money on legal fees.
Still, when you have a race where there is a 30-point gap between first and second place, it is hard to see how the status quo will change, absent some major event.
Perhaps if Haley turns all her focus on Trump and stops attacking DeSantis, maybe some Republican voters will start changing their views of the former president.
And the race may be a two-person race from now on — just one with an insurmountable gap.
The results in Iowa seem to be a sign of things to come when you look at the polls in upcoming states.
So how many 30-point wins will it take before voters start viewing Trump’s nomination as inevitable and the primary as essentially pointless?
