Former South Carolina GOP Chair Katon Dawson told Newsmax Sunday that Nikki Haley will remain in the race for the party nomination rather than mounting a No Labels independent bid for the White House.
"The answer would be no," Dawson told Newsmax's "Sunday Report" about Haley, a former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador. "Yesterday was a short day for us and a long night for the Haley campaign with us. We're going to move forward."
Within minutes of South Carolina's polls closing Saturday night, former President Donald Trump was declared the winner in Haley's home state by a large margin and was giving a victory speech, but Dawson said there remains a path to go forward "and keep talking about the message that matters to our country."
"We're a scrappy bunch down here," said Dawson. "We don't go away. We don't quit easy."
Haley has been facing a push to get out of the race and to put her weight behind Trump winning rather than fighting against him, but Dawson said that "what you're seeing from the Haley campaign is nothing compared to what we're going to see from the Democratic Party."
"They're going to have those military ads up with him calling them suckers and losers," he said. "They're going to have enough ammunition that they didn't have last time."
Dawson acknowledged that it may be difficult for Haley to gain the delegates to move on to a party nomination, but given that she took 40% of the vote in South Carolina and 35% in New Hampshire he's also worried about how the party will "put Humpty Dumpty back together again."
The Haley campaign is also still bringing in money from "dedicated patriots" as donors giving anywhere from $5 to $5 million, as they want to see a contest for the nomination, said Dawson.
"That's why you have a primary," he said. "Regardless of what the Trump people say, we're letting these Republicans vent and see what they say."
Further, a national race can't be won without having independent voters, "and yesterday 27% of the independent voters came in and a majority of that was for Nikki Haley," said Dawson.
Further, he said, the Republican Party has been changing some, he said.
"The same party that elected Donald Trump elected Nikki Haley in 2010," said Dawson. "They elected me four times. So I'm saying the base of our party has changed some. It has gotten bigger, but boy it's gotten meaner."
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