Nikki Haley continues her campaign for the Republican presidential nomination by exposing Trump

Reuters

The Donald Trump campaign team has pledged not to talk about her anymore. Many experts have completely dismissed her. But Nikki Haley continues to campaign across the country, and many Republican voters come to hear what she has to say.

In front of crowded audiences in the states that will vote on Super Tuesday next week, Haley is defending the arguments she presented after losing the primaries in her home state, South Carolina: about 40% of Republican voters support her over Trump, suggesting that the dominant figure in her party is particularly vulnerable in the November rematch against President Joe Biden.

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"He lost 40% of the primary votes in all the early states," Haley said Monday to over 500 people at a campaign event in the politically mixed suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. "You can't win the general elections if you can't win that 40%."

Trump is about to win several hundred more delegates for the Republican Party nomination on Super Tuesday and could eliminate Haley by securing the nomination a few weeks later. But by staying in the race longer than any other major candidate, Haley has highlighted Trump's political problems with key demographics in his party and suggested that it is a "sinking ship."

Trump got about 51% of the voters in the Iowa caucuses, 54% in the New Hampshire primaries, and 60% in South Carolina. Haley did not come close to 40% in this week's Michigan primaries and, instead, lost to Trump by over 40 points, 68% to 27%.

But, as during the primaries, Haley performed better in suburban areas like Oakland County, near Detroit, and Ottawa County, near Grand Rapids. She also fared better in Kent County, where Grand Rapids is located and has a large suburban population.

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Biden flipped Kent County and improved Democrats' performance in 2016 in Oakland County, following the path that led him to win Michigan in 2020 and beat Trump in the elections.

Richard Czuba, a pollster who has long followed Michigan politics, said Haley's results were more significant in understanding a critical state in the general elections than the "uncommitted" campaign against Biden in protest of his handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, which attracted about 100,000 votes and picked up two Democratic delegates.