The U.S. Republican presidential primary is under way Saturday in South Carolina, with the focus on how well former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley will perform against the party's clear front-runner Donald Trump.
The contest in Haley's home state, where she served two terms as governor from 2011 to 2017, is being closely watched nationally and internationally as it could be the last chance to keep her presidential hopes alive. She has indicated, however, that she does not intend to bow out of the nomination race regardless of the state's results.
Recent polls have shown that Trump, a 77-year-old former president who lost his reelection bid to Joe Biden in 2020, is on track for a huge victory in the South Carolina primary after he won all the contests held so far, in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
More than 60 percent of the party's South Carolina primary voters support Trump, according to pre-primary polling, while Haley has lagged behind, her support fluctuating around 35 percent.
Over the past four decades, all but one Republican candidate who won South Carolina ultimately secured the party's nomination.
The state with a population of about 5.37 million is known to have a conservative and religious electorate, a great boon to Trump and an obvious disadvantage for Haley, who has to count on Republican-leaning independents to overcome the odds.
Currently, Trump has 63 delegates as compared to Haley's 17, with a total of at least 1,215 required for a Republican candidate to clinch the nomination. Up for grabs in South Carolina are 50 delegates.
Despite the gloomy outlook, Haley, 52, has suggested that she intends to remain in the race at least through "Super Tuesday" on March 5, when more than a dozen states, including populous California and Texas, will hold their nominating contests.
Haley has said it would not make sense for her to drop out of the race for the November presidential election, since the contests have just begun and most people have not yet been given the opportunity to vote.
She has asserted a number of times that both Trump and the 81-year-old Biden are too old to make important decisions for the country, calling for a generational change in U.S. politics and pitching herself as a reliable alternative to the two men.
Citing some polling results, Haley has also made the case that she is a more promising general-election candidate against Biden than Trump, who faces 91 criminal charges in four separate cases.
Haley has said she believes voters will not back Trump if he is criminally convicted, and such a possibility, coupled with ample contributions from donors wanting to foil the former president's White House bid, is believed to have motivated her to stay in the race as long as she can.
Regardless of the outcome in the South Carolina primary, she said earlier this week in a speech, "On Sunday, I'll still be running for president. I'm not going anywhere. I'm campaigning every day, until the last person votes, because I believe in a better America and a brighter future for our kids."
