Nikki Haley acknowledged in a new interview that she lacks a voter base but doesn't view it as a drawback as she tries to pull off an upset in the New Hampshire Republican primary.
As she barnstorms the Granite State in hopes of pulling off a surprise win over former President Trump on Tuesday, Haley was asked what her base looks like.
"I don’t have a base," Haley told The Free Press' Joe Nocera. "I don’t just want a certain type of person. I want everybody. That’s the only way we’re going to heal our country." She added, "That’s my whole thing. I know they’re saying, you know, ‘She’s getting independents to vote for her.’ "
"You have to want everybody," Haley went on. "It doesn’t change who I am. It doesn’t change the solutions I think we need going forward. But it does mean that I’m going to treat everybody with respect. I’m going to let them know what I’m about, what I want to do, and how I want to do it. I’m not going to push people away. I’m going to bring people in. That’s what I did in South Carolina. You’re supposed to work on lifting up everybody, not just a select few."
Haley is now in a two-person race with Trump for the 2024 nomination after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out on Sunday. DeSantis swiftly endorsed Trump, and the former president has scored a slew of other high-profile Republican backers in recent days after his lopsided victory in the Iowa caucuses.
Haley seemed pleased to get the race to a one-on-one matchup with Trump after the large field finally whittled down to the pair over the past year.
"Can you hear that sound?" she asked a large crowd in New Hampshire over the weekend after DeSantis quit, according to the New York Times. "That’s the sound of a two-person race."
Haley trails Trump in New Hampshire but has polled more strongly there than she ever did in Iowa – she finished third last week – and could do well with moderate and independent voters that wouldn't support Trump.
But the math looks more ominous going forward, even in her home state of South Carolina, where Trump holds a commanding polling advantage and recently won the endorsement of Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., whom Haley first appointed to the position in 2013.
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The Trump campaign has stepped up attacks on Haley, who served in his administration as Ambassador to the United Nations, saying she's loved by Democrats, globalists and Wall Street, and also referred to her by her given first name, Nimarata.
Haley said Sunday Trump was in mental decline and has played up her age compared to the party frontrunners, Trump and President Biden, who are 77 and 81 respectively.
"Don't be surprised. If you have somebody that's 80 in office. Their mental stability is going to continue to decline. That's just human nature," Haley said on CBS. "If you look at Joe Biden, he's very different than he was two years ago. Are we really going to go into a situation where we have wars around the world, and we're trying to prevent war, and we're gonna have someone who we can or can't be sure is gonna get confused?"
The Haley campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fox News' Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
