Nikki Haley Doesn’t Care if Extended GOP Race Damages Trump

“I’m weakening Trump because of who Trump is," she said in an interview here earlier this week. “Telling the truth in a primary is very important, so that’s what I’m doing."

Haley has stayed in the GOP nomination race despite the former president’s commanding position and intensifying intraparty pressure for her to get out. The longer Haley highlights Trump’s faults—as she is increasingly doing—and refuses to concede, the greater the potential she might tarnish him among general election swing voters who, polls show, are more drawn to her than him.

The former South Carolina governor, who was also the first United Nations ambassador in Trump’s administration, cites another reason she isn’t worried about collateral damage: “I’m going to win," she said without hesitation when pressed on whether she is harming the party’s prospects in November. “I’m strengthening the party because I bring more people into the Republican Party, instead of pushing people away like Trump."

Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Thursday that he doesn’t care if Haley continues in the race. “It’s bad for the party. I think it’s actually bad for her, too," he said.

While Haley’s quest for the nomination appears quixotic to some, she is getting enough donor money to keep her in the game as her campaign increasingly embraces an insurgent mentality. “It was venture capital. High probability of waste, small probability of saving the country. I don’t think it was a zero probability," hedge-fund billionaire Cliff Asness, a Trump critic, said of his financial support for Haley in a post on X.

Some close to her doubt she will run again in 2028 and hitting at Trump is unlikely to damage her prospects of making money in Corporate America, if that is her next chapter.

National and key state polls show Trump is the overwhelming front-runner, including in Haley’s home state’s Feb. 24 primary. Then she will confront the challenges of competing for Super Tuesday on March 5, when more than a third of all GOP delegates will be awarded by 15 states.

Trump on Thursday night won Nevada’s caucuses, which didn’t include Haley, and the state’s 26 delegates. She was on the ballot for Tuesday’s purely symbolic Nevada GOP primary and lost to “none of these candidates," which was seen as a stand-in for Trump.

Haley said demands by Trump and others that she exit the race are silly considering how few votes have been cast. She points to polls showing seven in 10 Americans want an option other than Trump versus President Biden.

“The fact that we would have a coronation after two months is absurd," she said. “The country needs to pay attention to those 70% of Americans and not the media, who are trying to say this is going to be Trump and Biden."

If Trump becomes the GOP nominee, Haley argues that he won’t be able to win enough independent voters and suburban women for a victory in November.

“By nature, I think women look for authenticity. They look for someone who is genuine, and they look for someone who is honest, and they don’t feel like he represents someone they want their kids to look at," she said. “I think parents in general are not comfortable with his behavior."

Trump has claimed he would do better against Biden while also emphasizing his massive leads over Haley among Republicans. “Nikki Haley loses to Trump everywhere!" he said in a recent social-media post.

Suburban women, a key general election demographic, have moved away from the GOP during Trump’s tenure as the party’s dominant figure. Haley’s strength among suburban and independent voters is why she does better than him in hypothetical matchups against Biden. The most recent Wall Street Journal poll had her beating the president by 17 percentage points.

Most polls show Biden with a slight lead over Trump among women, while a Quinnipiac University survey of registered voters released Jan. 31 showed a more sizable and growing advantage for the Democrat.

Republican Heather Walker, a 49-year-old executive with a cybersecurity firm who lives in a suburb of Charleston, S.C., said she plans to vote for Haley in the primary. She backed Trump in the 2016 and 2020 general elections, but says she won’t cast another ballot for him.

Walker said Trump’s trademark style of denigrating others, such as calling Haley “Birdbrain" and mocking the dress she wore on the night of the New Hampshire primary, is a turnoff.

“He’s obnoxious, and I don’t think he respects women," said Walker, a veteran and mother of two. “Misogynist is a good word for him."

In a party that often rejects identity politics, Haley has been subtle in her appeal to women.

Before she takes the stage at her events, “She’s a Beauty" by The Tubes, with its “She’s one in a million girl" refrain often plays, as does Tina Turner’s rendition of “Proud Mary." Following her speeches, “American Girl" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Sheryl Crow’s “Woman in the White House" are staples.

Haley has mentioned her high heels as a political weapon for more than a decade. She referred to the “fellas" when there were others competing with her against Trump and now she often tells her audience there is just one more “fella" to beat.

“Politics right now is a sea of men, so if I can go have fun with it, I’m going to do that," she said in the interview.

Haley said the more Trump tries to bully her out of the race, the harder she will fight. She cited her playground lessons as a child in the only Indian family in a small South Carolina town.

“I’ve never let anyone bully me, and I’ve never let anyone intimidate me," she said. “The more they do it, the more it motivates me."

Haley needs to motivate a lot more voters if she wants to avoid embarrassment in her home state. She trails Trump 65% to 32% in an average of the state’s polls, and a recent Washington Post-Monmouth University poll showed South Carolina GOP primary voters have started to sour on her as she has become more combative with him, with only slightly more now viewing her favorably than unfavorably.

But there are other metrics where she is showing some strength. Her campaign said committees associated with her bid raised a combined $16.5 million in January, more than they collected in the entire third quarter of 2023. That includes $11.7 million from grassroots supporters, who often give again in the future.

She is also drawing some of the largest crowds of her campaign, although even at 1,000 or more they are still small by Trump standards.

There is no question Haley is speaking more critically of Trump and with greater frequency. At a campaign event here, she leveled a subtle attack on him within the first 15 seconds of her speech. In Iowa and New Hampshire, those blows usually came near the end of her remarks.

“We are talking about him more," she said in the interview. “He’s my opponent. When there are 14 people in the race, you talk about yourself. When there are two people in the race, you talk about why you are different than the other person."

While Haley talks a lot on the campaign trail about the 91 criminal charges Trump faces—for matters including his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election—she declined to delve into detail about them. She has typically described the charges as a distraction for Trump’s ability to lead without taking a clear position on his guilt or innocence.

She called the recent federal jury verdict that Trump should pay more than $83 million in damages for defaming E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexually assaulting her decades ago “excessive," before adding that she thinks the nation’s jury system works.

“There are some things that have been politicized against him, and it clouds it because you don’t know what’s real and what’s not," Haley said. “What I do know is from his own mouth he’s said he’s going to be spending more time in a courtroom than he is on the campaign trail."

Haley is adamant she will be in the race through at least Super Tuesday, and her campaign events have started to reflect that. She appeared at a rally Wednesday in California, the largest delegate prize, and is also expected to appear in Texas next week as part of a fundraising swing.

If Trump wins the nomination and fails to win the general election, Haley could be a leading voice for the future direction of the GOP. Asked if that is a role she would want to play, she stayed on message: “I will shape this party by winning the presidency."

Haley said she wouldn’t pursue an independent bid if she fails to win the GOP nomination.

“I’m a Republican," she said. “A Republican primary is where Republicans run."

Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com