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WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Friday that she raised $12 million in February, a haul that will likely allow her to remain in the Republican primary against former President Donald Trump past next week's Super Tuesday — even though she can't point to an upcoming state where she thinks she'll beat him.
The former ambassador to the United Nations noted that she outraised Trump in January and insisted that the donations have continued to flow despite her not having a long-term plan to challenge — or even really dent — the former president's commanding lead in the primary.
“When I go into a fundraiser," she said Friday, "They don't ask me, 'What's your strategy?' They don't ask me, 'What's your plan?' All they say is, ‘Thank you for giving me hope.’"
Haley's announced February total has not yet been verified by official campaign finance filings. Still, Haley argues that another strong month with donors shows that Republicans are hungry for a viable alternative to Trump. Haley, who is also a former South Carolina governor, is the last Trump challenger standing from a field that was once crowded with more than a dozen Republican White House candidates.
Trump has swept every early GOP contest heading into Saturday's primary in the nation's capital — including trouncing Haley in South Carolina. But Haley outraised Trump in January, taking in $11.5 million while her allied super PAC brought in another $12 million. The former president's campaign raised $8.8 million in January with his primary super PAC taking in another $7.3 million.
Asked about Haley announcing her strong February fundraising, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said, “Our focus is now on Joe Biden and the general election.”
As Biden steps up his own fundraising and travel around the country amid his own reelection campaign, the president has also zeroed in on Trump while largely assuming the race with Haley is over — calling his presidential predecessor a threat to the nation's core values and very democracy.
Haley says she's “not anti-Trump” and doesn't fault Republicans for voting for him in the primary. She campaigned in Washington ahead of its Republican primary on Saturday — though the stakes are low given how Democratic the city is. She was also finishing the evening Friday in North Carolina, one of the 15 states holding GOP primaries on Tuesday.
Haley ducked questions about where she might win a primary on Super Tuesday or beyond, saying, “I don't look all the way down the road." She has repeatedly refused to comment about long-term plans aside from saying that she will reevaluate after Tuesday.
“Super Tuesday, we're gonna try to be competitive. I hope we go forward. But, this is all about like, how competitive can we be?" Haley said in her Washington meeting with reporters. "Can we continue to show that there is a big number of Americans who are saying they want to go in this direction?”
Haley has said previously that she has no interest in mounting a third-party presidential challenge against Biden and Trump with the centrist No Labels group. She said Friday that she'd not spoken to No Labels but didn't plan on mounting a White House bid with them because she said it would require her to team up with a Democratic running mate.
“I can't do what I want to do as president with a Democrat vice president,” she said. “If I ran for No Labels that would mean it's about me. It's not about me — it's about the direction I think the country should go.”