What Did Haley Mean by Her 'Two-Person Race' Comment?

Leah Barkoukis | January 16, 2024 2:45 PM

During an interview Tuesday morning with “Fox & Friends,” former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley explained her “two person race” comment that raised eyebrows on Monday.

Despite finishing third in Iowa with 19.1 percent of the vote, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations argued the race as now between her and former President Donald Trump.

"[T]onight Iowa did what Iowa always does so well. 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," she said.

Former Gov. Ron DeSantis, who came in second with 21.2 percent of the vote, is still in the race, however.

That led Fox News' Brian Kilmeade to ask Haley why she thinks it's a two-person race.

“First of all, look at where we started: I mean, when we started, there were 14 people in the race. We had 2 percent in the polls and we came out with a strong showing,” she replied.

“That’s what we wanted in Iowa, now we’re in New Hampshire,” Haley continued. “You can look at the polls in New Hampshire—we’re a stone’s throw away from Donald Trump and so we’re going to continue to work really hard. We’ve been here for 11 months, we’ve done over 75 town halls…we know that that gave us the strength coming out of Iowa, we’re going to get even stronger in New Hampshire going to South Carolina.”