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Nikki Haley has proudly referred to as herself the underdog within the Republican presidential nomination battle, telling South Carolina audiences again and again how she defeated, or not less than outlasted, 12 different candidates, all of them males, after which including, “I simply have another fella to catch.”
However in her race in South Carolina to catch that fellow, former President Donald J. Trump, she ran an exceptionally typical marketing campaign, crisscrossing the state in a bus, delivering her stump speech nearly phrase for phrase, again and again, and infrequently taking questions from the viewers or the information media in attendance. Her visitor audio system have been native mayors and prosecutors.
Because the marketing campaign for her dwelling state got here to an in depth, ending in a swift victory for Mr. Trump on Saturday evening, some marketing campaign professionals query how such a cautious effort was ever going to shake up a nominating contest during which Mr. Trump had already received the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire major, and held a transparent lead in South Carolina.
Lis Smith, who helped run the presidential marketing campaign of Pete Buttigieg in 2020, placing a little-known former mayor of South Bend, Ind., on the political map, mentioned that when Ms. Haley bought the race right down to a two-candidate contest, “there was an enormous alternative to make a splash.”
However within the state the place she served as governor, Ms. Haley didn’t do a lot of what a candidate attempting to shut a yawning hole would do, Ms. Smith mentioned — corresponding to take questions from voters or pull stunts to seize press consideration, like displaying up at marketing campaign occasions with shock company.
“If you’re the underdog, if you’re attempting to drive the narrative, you must perceive what drives the media,” she mentioned, “and you must be keen to make information, not give set speeches.”
Ms. Haley’s lone “stunt,” a speech Tuesday billed as a significant state of the race tackle, did seize headlines. After discover of the speech led to rumors that she was dropping out, Ms. Haley devoted the time to explaining why, regardless of the polls, she was not going anyplace. And he or she argued that she needs nothing from Mr. Trump, who has insisted that she’s going to go away the race and endorse him.
Chip Felkel, a South Carolina Republican political advisor and Trump critic, agreed with Ms. Smith, expressing shock that Ms. Haley held so few town-hall conferences to take questions from potential voters.
However, he mentioned, the warning sprang from expertise and belied Ms. Haley’s assertion that she doesn’t care about her political future.
She was burned in New Hampshire when she was requested at a town-hall assembly what precipitated the Civil Battle and uncared for to say slavery, he mentioned. Her interview this week with NBC Information during which she advised she agreed with an Alabama Supreme Court docket ruling that frozen embryos have been protected human life provided Mr. Trump an opportunity to stake out a extra broadly common place on I.V.F. on Friday. He issued an announcement saying he supported the supply of the fertility remedy nationwide and mentioned Alabama ought to transfer rapidly to guard entry.
Given the maintain that Mr. Trump has on Republican voters in conservative states like South Carolina, there might have been nothing she might do to alter the trajectory of the race, Mr. Felkel added. Her warning might be learn as preserving choices for a future comeback, ought to Mr. Trump win the presidential nomination however lose the election in November.
“She says she’s bought nothing to lose,” Mr. Felkel mentioned, “however she’s appearing like she does. She’s hedging her bets.”
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