Salem, N.H. — Nikki Haley plans to lean into retail politicking on the 2024 GOP primary trail, focusing on more intimate events that she believes will heighten the contrast between her and the early favorite for the nomination, former president Donald Trump.
The former South Carolina governor laid out her strategy during a town hall in Salem, N.H. Tuesday night, when one of the voters gathered at the Derry-Salem Elks Lodge asked how she planned to best Trump.
"When you look at the situation that we have, President Trump has 25 percent of Republicans,” Haley said. “It's a hard 25 percent. They are 'Trump or no one.'"
"There are 75 percent other Republicans there that are looking for a place to be," she said. "I am not going to focus on doing big rallies. I am here and I've been here multiple times and I'll keep coming back."
Haley, who is headed to the southern border next week, has held nine events and visited seven cities in the early primary state since announcing her bid for president last month.
“You'll get tired of seeing me. But it's because I want you to go tell your friends and family, I heard her at the next town hall you need to go. And let me tell them. And let me earn their support,” Haley said.
She said she plans to hold events in New Hampshire, Iowa, and South Carolina where voters can hear her, ask her questions and "touch hands over and over and over again."
"You have to go and answer the hard questions,” she said. “You have to go face-to-face. You can't fly in and fly out.”
Since his political rise in the 2016 election, Trump’s campaign style has been marked by huge, enthusiastic rallies. Over the weekend, Trump drew roughly 15,000 people to a rally in Waco, Texas, according to local reports, though Trump himself estimated the crowd at 25,000 and mocked his presumed chief rival in the race, Florida governor Ron DeSantis, for failing to measure up.
“If Ronald Reagan came back from the dead, which would be very nice, actually, or a popular politician, you would have 300 to 400 people,” Trump said in comments to the reporters aboard his plane. “Ron DeSanctimonious had 179. So far, that’s been his biggest crowd in Iowa–he had 179 people.”
Haley also noted the polls will not look the same a year from now as they do today.
“If you need examples, do I need to remind you about Jeb Bush? He had tons of money. Do I need to remind you about my friend Scott Walker? He was ‘Teflon Scott.’ He'd gotten through two recalls. They said he was the golden boy. He was going to be president. He never made it to Iowa.”
Fifty-four percent of New Hampshire voters said they have a favorable view of Haley, while 23 percent said they have an unfavorable view, according to a recent Public Opinion Strategies poll. She trails behind DeSantis, whose favorability rating was 77 percent to 15 percent and Trump, whose rating was 69 percent to 29 percent.
She concluded: “This is about hard work. There are no shortcuts when it comes to running for president."
“We will continue coming back,” she said. “You’ll get tired of seeing me.”
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