Assessing Claims That Nikki Haley Is ‘Claiming Victory’ After Primary and Caucus Losses

Haley conceded that Trump won after both Iowa and New Hampshire.

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Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley speaks after results came in for the New Hampshire primary during a watch party in Concord, New Hampshire, on January 23, 2024. (Photo by Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images)

A number of media headlines and social media posts have caused confusion over whether Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has claimed victory for her second and third place finishes, respectively, in New Hampshire and Iowa’s Republican presidential nominating contests. 

“She keeps claiming victory when she loses,” conservative commentator Mark Levin said in a tweet responding to the speech Haley delivered the night of the New Hampshire primary.

On Wednesday, the Associated Press published a story that made a similar assertion in its headline.

While Haley is certainly trying to frame her performances in Iowa and New Hampshire in a positive light, she has also acknowledged Donald Trump’s victories early in her speeches. “I want to congratulate President Trump on his victory tonight. He earned it, and I want to acknowledge that,” Haley remarked in New Hampshire. In Iowa, she said something similar: “I want to congratulate President Trump on his win tonight.”

Despite her acknowledgement of Trump’s victory, Haley’s campaign is still working hard to frame the former South Carolina governor as the only feasible alternative to the former president. “At one point in this campaign, there were 14 of us running. I was at 2 percent in the polls, but tonight Iowa did what Iowa will always does so well,” Haley said in the same Iowa speech. “The pundits will analyze the results from every angle, we get that. But when you look at how we’re doing in New Hampshire, in South Carolina, and beyond, I can safely say tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two-person race.” 

Haley made similarly confident assertions following her second-place finish in New Hampshire. “Now, you’ve all heard the chatter among the political class. They’re falling all over themselves saying this race is over,” she said. “Well, I have news for all of them: New Hampshire is first in the nation, it is not the last in the nation. This race is far from over, there are dozens of states left to go.”

Trump currently holds a projected 32 delegates from his victories in Iowa and New Hampshire, nearly double Haley’s projected 17 delegates thus far. Both campaigns are now turning their focus to courting voters in Haley’s home state of South Carolina, who head to the polls on February 24. Nevada will hold its primary contest on February 6, however it will only award delegates for results in the state’s caucus two days later. Haley, who chose not to participate in the party-run caucus, will not be eligible to receive any of Nevada’s 26 delegates.

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Comments (21)
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  1. J. Everett Schubert

    Mark Levin. Truly the worst voice in radio/TV. Can't stand Michael Savage either, but he nailed it when he said he sounds like "Groucho Marx's grandmother after a hysterectomy."

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    Christine Parker

    Oy - when the AP and Mark Levin are making the same claim, the world is truly upside down.

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  3. Hikingguy

    Mark Levin. Filthy liar for money. Screw him, but leave the horse he rode in on alone. The horse is a better human being than Levin is.

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      Trevor Reid

      In the before times, I would occasionally stumble upon him on the radio. I didn’t like him then. … Just a grouchy old man, kind of like Ann Coulter.

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      Lchrisberg

      Levin is a typical Fox Trump lackey. It's time for a second news channel.

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  4. Betsybowditch

    Candidates always put their losses in a postive light by spinning. Read the Trump campaign was concerned Haley, for whom they had devoted few resources to attack, might pull off a second place finish in Iowa, where DeSantis had put everything on the field, and use that to propel herself to first place in NH.

    Sadly, that didn't happen. Trump's lock on the base may be secure but that won't propel him to victory in the general election.

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      Lchrisberg

      Let's see how secure it is. Chances are he wins, but let's see. Haley needs to emphasize, in order:
      * Electibility - Pound, pound, pound, this issue. Failures in mid-terms. The criticality of a wave and taking Congress.
      * Education - The positive portion of the campaign
      * Entitlements Crisis - Show leadership and acknowledge something needs to get done.
      * Captain Chaos - Talk about a target rich environment.....
      * Low Character - She needs to challenge Mike Huckerbee on supporting a moral and ethical deviant like Trump. Real Christians concede their sinful nature and ask forgiveness. Evangelicals supporting Trump need to be shamed. Get them all scarlett T's.
      * Authoritarianism - He's so into himself I can't believe he even notices how hot his wife is.
      * Free Speech - Pretty sure all he understands is allowing speech the helps him and censoring speech that doesn't but ask him.

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      1. Betsybowditch

        Trump is his own worst enemy. He is going to go after Haley in very misogynistic terms and that will potentially alienate women voters.

        And he will give the Biden campaign ammunition against him. The RNC wanted to avoid this by forcing her out of the race. But she ain’t budging.

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          Christine Parker

          Nor should she.

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  5. Indisguise

    Never have I felt better about Haley than these last few days.

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  6. Goatprairie

    Of the downfall in the integrity category of the people I used to respect Levin is near the top of the list.
    He knows the score about Trump at the start of Trump's drive for the White House. He had him pegged right in 2016 as did a number of other people who changed their tune when their ratings took a nosedive.
    Glenn Beck and Greg Gutfeld are two other notable "conservative" luminaries who happily threw their integrity into the trash bin when their ratings suffered.
    Beck, Levin, and Gutfeld were all anti-Trump in 2015 and 2016. What changed? Their ratings that's what.
    It's not like any of three would have been on a street corner with a tin cup begging for change.
    But the risk of being rejected by the cult caused all of them to have an epiphany. Personal integrity or the support of a person they know is a fraud but a continuance of their prosperous careers. We know what happened.

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  7. Bkamena

    You'd think by now Mark Levin would recognize classless and dishonest. He sees it in the mirror every morning.

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    Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

    Nikki is really claiming just a moral victory, not an electoral one. Coaches spin narrow losses the same way all the time.

    Me, every April I focus instead on morel victories; we head over to the farm lookin' for them. I hope that pun wasn't in spore taste?

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    1. LucyTrice

      Phil's traveling isn't he?

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      CynthiaW

      *facepalm*

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    CynthiaW

    It's expected that Mark Levin would repeat false claims made by Donald Trump. Why the AP chose to do so is a separate question. Noah Rothman at National Review suggested, "Perhaps Haley’s refusal to supplicate before Trump, postponing the onset of the general-election campaign, frustrates the Associated Press as much as it does Trump."

    It's as if Mr. Rothman read some of my many comments observing that one might reasonably believe that Donald Trump and the journalistical industry are on the same side.

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      Christine Parker

      They do have a mutually beneficial arrangement.

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    2. Dan P.

      Yeah, I thought that AP headline was a bit eyebrow-raising when I saw it yesterday. You & Noah may be onto the reason why.

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      Show Jay Janney the 🚪!

      Some might say the money of Donald trumps journalism integrity.

      Not that I would ever post that....

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        CynthiaW

        It depends on what one even means by "integrity." One could argue that making editorial decisions that drive eyeballs to one's publication is just being a good employee.

        Articles about the "earned media" dedicated to Donald Trump, and its monetary value, seek to eliminate the active agency of media-industry employees. Son Fang has "earned" his $14 if he works an hour for the city parks department. However, Donald Trump isn't in a contractual, quid pro quo relationship with media companies ... at least not openly. Networks and website decide what coverage, if any, a person has "earned," based on their own criteria.

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    Wilhelm

    Thanks, Alex.

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