South Carolina Primary Sets Stage for Nikki Haley's "Last-in-the-South" Battle


Republican

We are under a week away from our trip to South Carolina for the Republican First-in-the-South primary! Even though South Carolina serves as the nation's second primary, it is fourth on the calendar behind Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire, which are the beginning of the process to select delegates to the 2024 Republican National Convention to determine the party's nominee for president in the 2024 United States presidential election.

Nikki Haley remains the only major remaining candidate who can contest Donald Trump's dominant frontrunner position. After embarassing losses in Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, some may be speculating when she plans on cutting losses and conceding the nomination to Trump. The bellweather states of Iowa and New Hampshire helped to whiddle the field, eliminating candidates such as Governor Ron DeSantis, Former Governor Chris Christie, Former Governor Asa Hutchinson, and tech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Despite Haley's losses, her bets could be hedged on other paths to victory, such as the health of former President Trump, his various legal troubles, or the important but now seemingly unlikely event that former President Trump is removed from certain states ballots. Furthermore, the strategy could even be looking as far into the future as 2028, using a second Trump loss as a vindication that Trumpism is no longer viable in the general election.

While Haley may choose to continue her losses after South Carolina, it is certain that South Carolina will serve as a 'nail-in-the-coffin' for a traditional campaign as she fails to gain the proper traction needed for underdogs to challenge frontrunners, especially one as popular among Republicans as Former President Trump. While the South Carolina Primary has its label as the "First-in-the-South", it is almost certain that it will be the last primary for Haley to shake things up.


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