Nikki Haley says it's "very possible" the Republican Party has shifted towards Trump
Published Date: 2/28/2024
Source: axios.com

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Tuesday that it's "very possible" that GOP has shifted away from her views.

Why it matters: The former UN ambassador's remarks came before former President Trump was projected to easily win the Michigan Republican primary, at a time when he has dominated every early GOP primary contest.


Driving the news: '"Isn't it possible the party has moved, and the party is about Donald Trump and not what you're describing, which might be the party of yesterday?" CNN's Dana Bash asked Haley on Tuesday.

  • "It is very possible," the former South Carolina governor said.
  • "What I am saying to my Republican Party family is, we are in a ship with a hole in it, and we can either go down with the ship and watch the country go socialist left, or we can see that we need to take the life raft and move in a new direction."

The big picture: Haley maintains that she is staying in the race and she plans to traverse more than half a dozen states over the next week, holding fundraisers and rallies as part of her commitment to staying in the contest.

  • "We've only seen a handful of states vote," she told CNN. "I've said this before as much as the media wants to jump ahead, we're taking this one state, one day at a time.

State of play: Haley has repeatedly highlighted polling that shows the majority of Americans want a candidate other than Trump in November.

  • "I'm doing what I believe 70% of Americans want me to do," she said in a Wall Street Journal interview, published earlier Tuesday.
  • Her campaign said the Michigan results highlight Trump's vulnerabilities in November.
  • "Let this serve as another warning sign that what has happened in Michigan will continue to play out across the country," spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas said in a statement.

Go deeper: Trump wins Michigan Republican primary, AP projects