Haley says she raised $12M in February, but can’t point to long-term plan to beat Trump
WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Friday that she raised $12 million in February, a haul that will likely allow her to remain in the Republican primary against former President Donald Trump past next week’s Super Tuesday — even though she can’t point to an upcoming state where she expects to beat him.
The former ambassador to the United Nations noted that she outraised Trump in January and insisted that the donations have continued to flow despite her not having a long-term plan to challenge — or even really dent — the former president’s commanding lead in the primary.
“When I go into a fundraiser,” she said Friday, “They don’t ask me, ‘What’s your strategy?’ They don’t ask me, ‘What’s your plan?’ All they say is, ‘Thank you for giving me hope.’”
Haley’s announced February total has not yet been verified by official campaign finance filings. Still, Haley argues that another strong month with donors shows that Republicans are hungry for a viable alternative to Trump. Haley, who is also a former South Carolina governor, is the last Trump challenger standing from a field that was once crowded with more than a dozen Republican White House candidates.
Trump has swept every early GOP contest heading into Saturday’s primary in the nation’s capital — including trouncing Haley in South Carolina. But Haley outraised Trump in January, taking in $11.5 million while her allied super PAC brought in another $12 million. The former president’s campaign raised $8.8 million in January with his primary super PAC taking in another $7.3 million.
Asked about Haley announcing her strong February fundraising, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, “Our focus is now on Joe Biden and the general election.”
“Republican voters have delivered resounding wins for President Trump in every single primary contest and this race is over,” Cheung said.
As Biden steps up his own fundraising and travel around the country amid his own reelection campaign, the president has also zeroed in on Trump while largely assuming the race with Haley is over — calling his presidential predecessor a threat to the nation’s core values and very democracy.
Haley says she’s “not antiTrump” and doesn’t fault Republicans for voting for him in the primary. She campaigned in Washington ahead of its GOP primary on Saturday — though there are only about 23,000 registered Republicans in an overwhelmingly Democratic city.