COLUMBIA, S.C. — On February 24, voters in South Carolina will go to the polls to cast their ballot in the South Carolina Republican Presidential Primary. This year's contest in the primary is down to two people: Former President Donald Trump and Former South Carolina Governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Haley has seen a lot of firsts in her life. Born in Bamberg, South Carolina in 1972, she's the daughter of Indian immigrants making her a first generation Indian-American. After serving three terms in the South Carolina House of Representatives, in 2010, she was elected to be South Carolina's first ever female governor. In 2017, left office early after then President Trump tapped her to be the United Nations Ambassador, making her the first Indian American to serve in the cabinet.
Now, she wants to be the first female president of the United States and despite the numbers being against her, Haley believes she still has a path to victory. On Super Bowl Sunday, she sat down with News19's Andrea Mock to discuss her campaign. (Editor's note: News19 reached out to the Trump campaign multiple times for an interview as well with no success.)
Despite trailing in polls against Trump, Haley said she isn't going anywhere.
"This is all about building," Haley said. "It's a marathon. It's not a sprint. So our focus was we had 14 people in the race. So we got through a dozen of them and got a dozen of the fellows out of the way. We've got just one left. "
Haley believes her record as a conservative governor who cut spending and grew business in our state. And people wanting a break from Donald Trump will motivate voters on February 24.
"They know what I did for them as governor," she said. "We want to go and make sure we fight just as hard to earn their support and show them that I can do that same thing as president and really bring our country together and really get our country strong economically from a national security perspective, and more importantly, to get the chaos out of the way."
But some notable South Carolinians have turned their back on Haley. In January, Senator Tim Scott flew to New Hampshire to endorse former President Trump ahead of their primary and despite once saying Trump's legacy was wiped out by the January 6 attack on the Capitol, Representative Nancy Mace announced she was backing Trump.
"When I appointed Tim Scott, it was really neat trying to take South Carolina to a new level," Haley said. "I thought he was the right person at the right time. I still think that that was a good decision and I stand by that. Tim Scott has to sleep with his decision the same with Nancy Mace does, and we fought hard for her we fought for her re-election, the same thing there. But if you look, Donald Trump has surrounded himself with the political elite. And when you look at the South Carolina political elite that that have surrounded him, think about it: That's the same political elite that taught me every step of the way."
Governor Haley is no stranger to political foes. Recently, the Trump campaign held a rally at the State House inviting state lawmakers who oppose her to come and speak. Haley believes many state lawmakers are still against her because of some of the bills that she passed as governor like the Roll Call Law, also known as the Spending Accountability Act of 2011. That law mandates roll call votes on the record for any bills or joint resolutions tasks.
"I call out Republicans or Democrats if you are not serving the people," Haley said. "I'm going to continue to call you out because I think at the end of the day, those are the people I'm fighting for. So the reason again, you see the political elite in Congress around Donald Trump is because I've asked for term limits. It's because I've said if you don't give us a budget on time, which Congress has only done four times in 40 years, if Congress doesn't give us a budget on time, they shouldn't get paid. I don't think Congress should have be able to trade in the stock market when they have extra information. I have always gone against the establishment, because they're the ones that have always gone against the people."
South Carolina is home to eight military bases and with so many veterans and active duty military in our state, including Haley's own husband, Michael, who's currently deployed. That means national security ranks high for voters here. In January, three soldiers from Georgia were killed by an enemy drone strike on their base in Jordan the attack blamed on Iran backed militia groups. Mock asked Haley, if she was president, how she would handle the attack?
"So the first thing we need to do is put the sanctions back on immediately, stop any money flow that's going to Iran," Haley said. "The second thing is take out those hubs where the drones and missiles are coming to hit our military men and women those in Iraq and Syria. Let's get those out. Thirdly, let's go after one or two of the Iranian military leaders that have made these decisions. Iran doesn't care if we take out their fighting force, they'll just get more. They don't care if we take out their drones or missiles. They'll just get more what they do care about. Is their money and their leadership."
Finally, Haley said in this race, age matters. Haley, who is 52, recently tweeted a meme that said "Grumpy Old Men" with pictures of Biden who's 81 and Trump who's 77. (The reference was to the 1993 film starring Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathau.) We asked her why age is something that voters should think about in this race?
"It's not being disrespectful," Haley said. "You know, we all know people who are above 75 that can run circles around us. I don't care if we do mental competency tests for people 50 and up. But right now, Congress is the most privileged nursing home in the country. And you look at Joe Biden, you can see the decline that's happened over the last couple of years. These are people making decisions on our national security. These are people making decisions on the future of our economy. We need to know they're at the top of their game. Americans can do better than two 80-year-olds running for president."
Right now. Former President Trump has 63 delegates, and Haley has 17. But on Super Tuesday, 15 states and one territory will select their candidate, with 874 delegates at stake. It takes 1,215 to secure the nomination.