Haley says she is 'going after Trump,' DeSantis 'invisible' in New Hampshire
Haley said on CNN that her focus now is "going after Trump."
Haley has made the shift in her campaign clear post-Iowa, moving her attention away from DeSantis and toward Trump. Haley said DeSantis is “invisible” in New Hampshire and South Carolina, and therefore no longer her concern.
"[DeSantis] is not my concern," Haley said. "I'm going after Trump."
Haley also said she told ABC News that she would only participate in the next Republican primary debate if Trump is on the stage, echoing comments she made to NBC on Sunday.
“If he’s on that stage, I’m there," she said of the former president.
ABC News has set their deadline for candidates to commit to the New Hampshire debate by 5 p.m.
Haley, DeSantis and allies spent more than $1,000 per vote in Iowa
Nearly $124 million was spent on ads in Iowa through Monday’s caucuses, according to the ad-tracking firm AdImpact. But the candidates got a relatively small number of votes for those millions, with the frigid caucuses seeing the lowest turnout for a competitive contest since 2000.
An analysis of ad spending and vote totals finds that candidates who finished toward the bottom of the field spent more money per vote than their rivals.
Pastor Ryan Binkley's long-shot campaign spent the most money on ads per vote — $3,990 — since he earned only 774 caucus votes after spending nearly $3.1 million on ads.
The next highest cost-per-vote came from former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, whose campaign and allied super PAC, SFA Fund Inc., spent a combined $36.2 million on ads. Haley ended up with nearly 22,000 votes, translating to $1,717 spent per vote.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign and multiple allied outside groups spent $1,499 for each vote that he earned in the GOP caucuses, where he secured second place with more than 23,000 votes.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who ended up in fourth place with nearly 8,500 votes, did not spend nearly as much on ads as his rivals, and ended up spending $484 on ads for each vote he received. (Ramaswamy spent a fair amount of money on other things during the campaign, but ad spending is the most consistent way to compare the candidates at this point.)
Former President Donald Trump’s campaign and his super PAC, MAGA Inc, spent a combined $18.5 million on ads in Iowa, translating to $329 per vote. Trump won the caucuses with support from more than 56,000 caucusgoers.
New poll shows Haley with widest lead over Biden
A national online CBS/YouGov poll tested hypothetical matchups between President Joe Biden and the top GOP presidential candidates. This survey was conducted before the Iowa caucuses on Monday. Haley’s lead over Biden is outside the survey’s margin of error and is consistent with other surveys showing her overperforming in a hypothetical race against Biden.
Among roughly 1,900 likely voters across the country, the survey shows Trump with 50% to Biden's 48%, within the 3.1% margin of error. DeSantis received 51% to Biden’s 48%, while a hypothetical Haley-Biden matchup shows the South Carolina governor on top, 53% to 45%.
Iowa Gov. Reynolds, who endorsed DeSantis, says she'd support Trump if he wins nomination
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds yesterday signaled that she would get behind Trump if he wins the GOP presidential nomination, despite being a target of attacks by the former president after she announced her endorsement of DeSantis in November.
In an interview on Fox Business hours before Trump was projected to win the Iowa caucuses yesterday, Reynolds said she has “made it clear” that she would support the eventual GOP nominee.
“I’m a Republican and, you know, all of the candidates running are going to be better than what we have,” Reynolds said, referring to President Joe Biden.
“Even after all the stuff he’s said about you?” Fox Business anchor Neil Cavuto asked.
“Yeah well, because you know, we’ve got to win,” Reynolds said.
Pressed on who she’d vote for if Trump and Biden go head to head in the general election, Reynolds said she is “on record” saying that she will support the eventual GOP nominee.
“I’m a Republican, and we need to make sure that we don’t re-elect President Biden for another four years,” she said.
During her announcement of her endorsement of DeSantis in November, Reynolds touted the Florida governor’s accomplishments as she said she believes Trump can’t win the general election.
Trump began hurling insults at Reynolds in July for declining to endorse a candidate at the time and over her close ties with DeSantis.
NBC News’ Steve Kornacki breaks down the results from the Iowa caucuses, which found former President Trump winning with 51% of the vote and Gov. Ron DeSantis coming in a distant second.
DeSantis celebrates second place finish at S.C. rally, trashes Haley
At a rally this morning in Greenville, South Carolina, DeSantis touted his distant second-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, repeating his comments that his campaign "punched our ticket out of Iowa."
A couple hundred South Carolinians attended the event in an airplane hangar — and DeSantis' stump was very well received, especially his comments celebrating last night’s election results.
He addressed comments by his campaign officials deeming the media's early evening call in Iowa "election interference." DeSantis walked the claims back slightly saying, "I certainly am not suggesting that somehow the order would have changed," but that "maybe there would have been a percent or two" difference if the call had not been made while caucusing was ongoing.
He took the time to take a dig at his closest challenger, joking: "By debating Gavin Newsom, you know, I needed practice debating somebody who’s almost as liberal as Nikki Haley." His comment drew cheers from the audience.
Haley campaign gears up as Trump world vows to go after her ‘reputation and image’
A new dynamic is unfolding in the presidential primaries, with both Donald Trump’s and Nikki Haley’s campaigns shifting to one-on-one combat as the race charges to the next phase with an expected competitive contest in New Hampshire.
It could get ugly fast.
Team Trump is readying to unleash a level of vitriol against Haley, Trump's former U.N. ambassador, that she hasn’t yet seen, according to several of the former president’s advisers and allies.
“Nikki should get out while people still talk about her for 2028, or she’ll end up like all the 2016s that nobody thinks of as future presidents anymore,” a Trump campaign adviser said. “A protracted ground war will cost us our money, but it will cost Nikki her reputation and image.”
But Haley, too, is moving more aggressively against Trump, already characterizing the race as a choice between an aged politician drowning in old grievances and a new face who promises generational change and stability. Though she came in third in Iowa on Monday, she declared the contest a two-person race between herself and Trump.
“[T]he field of candidates is effectively down to two, with only Trump and Nikki Haley having substantial support in both New Hampshire and South Carolina,” Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, said in a memo responding to the Iowa results.
DeSantis: We made 'an impression' in Iowa
In his first post-Iowa interview, DeSantis tells NBC News that his campaign made "an impression" in the state.
"We, obviously, came in second," DeSantis said, in an interview in Greenville, South Carolina. But he argued that he's viewed "favorably" among the broader GOP electorate, while he said Haley is “really relying on non-Republicans."
"What we did in Iowa, we did make an impression. ... I had people come up to me saying, 'I love you, man. I’m gonna do Trump this time and do you next time.' That’s not what I wanted to hear. But, being there, we did make an impression."
On Trump, DeSantis said, “of course he’s formidable,” but argued that there is an appetite for a non-Trump candidate.
DeSantis says Haley is 'afraid to debate'
DeSantis responded to Haley's comment that going forward from the Iowa caucuses she would only debate Donald Trump or Joe Biden, saying Haley is "afraid to debate because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions."
The Florida governor accused Haley of getting "rich off Boeing after giving them millions in taxpayer handouts as governor of South Carolina," in his tweet on his X account, and repeated his claim that Haley "is not running for the nomination, she’s running to be Trump’s VP."
"I won’t snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, and plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week," DeSantis wrote on X.
The debate was to be hosted by ABC News on Thursday night at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. An ABC News spokesperson said the network and its local station, WMUR-TV, have given the Haley and Trump campaigns until 5 p.m. ET today to say whether they will take part in the planned debate and "will update our plans accordingly.”
Asa Hutchinson drops out of the 2024 presidential race
Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson announced Tuesday that he is suspending his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, dropping out after failing to register in the Iowa caucuses.
Hutchinson notched 0.2% of the vote in Monday’s caucuses, finishing a distant fifth after an anti-Trump campaign that did not gain traction for the veteran Republican in the new GOP.
“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front-runner did not sell in Iowa,” Hutchinson said in a statement. “I stand by the campaign I ran.”
Hutchinson spent much of his campaign on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire, where he was a vocal critic of Trump, even suggesting that the former president might be disqualified from running in 2024 under the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, which has a provision barring candidates who have engaged in insurrection.
“Whenever you’re looking at four indictments, and the fact that not everybody can recite what each of those indictments entail, they know this is not good for our country, and that no one under that kind of pressure can lead our country, particularly with a mindset that he wants to get revenge as the next president,” Hutchinson said last year in an interview with NBC News. “And so if anyone should drop out, it should be Donald Trump.”