CONCORD, N.H. — Calling her second-place finish in the New Hampshire primary “a great night,” presidential candidate Nikki Haley said she will continue to fight for the nomination and called on former President Trump, the primary winner and prohibitive frontrunner, to debate her on stage.
“This race is far from over,” Ms. Haley told a packed ballroom. “There are dozens of states left to go. And the next one is my sweet home state of South Carolina.”
Ms. Haley is trailing Mr. Trump by double digits in the Palmetto State, where she served as governor from 2011 to 2017. She said the New Hampshire results, which early returns showed her winning nearly half of the primary voters, confirmed she was advancing her quest to defeat Mr. Trump.
“We keep moving up,” said Ms. Haley, who finished third behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the Iowa caucuses on Jan. 15, but only by a percentage point.
Mr. DeSantis and all of the more than one dozen Republicans who initially competed for the nomination have dropped out, she said.
“And now we are the last one standing next to Donald Trump,” she said.
The crowd called Mr. Trump “a loser,” while Ms. Haley said Mr. Trump’s “chaos” would make it difficult for him to beat Mr. Biden.
She called a Trump nomination “a Biden win, and a Kamala Harris presidency.”
Ms. Haley, who has called on politicians to take mental competency tests, said Mr. Trump “should have no problem standing on a debate stage with me,” after confusing her with Nancy Pelosi during a rally on Friday.
“The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate will be the party that wins this election,” she said. “And I think it should be the Republican Party that wins the election. So this fight is far from over.”
Ms. Haley promised to fight through the next two months of primaries, when more independent voters will be up for grabs in several states, providing an opportunity for her to rack up delegates.
While Mr. Trump dominated the GOP vote in the New Hampshire primary, Ms. Haley was on track to win the undeclared voters.
Ms. Haley plans to hold a rally Wednesday in South Carolina, which holds a primary on Feb. 24.
“South Carolina voters don’t want a coronation, they want an election and we are going to give them one,” she said, “because we are just getting started.”