Republican National Committee officials are debating a resolution that would declare the presidential primary presumptively over and former President Donald Trump the nominee, reported The Dispatch — and his final major remaining challenger, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, is defiant in the face of it.
David Bossie, the longtime head of Citizens United who previously served on Trump's campaign team, introduced the measure, according to writer David Drucker.
"His effort to put the national party on a general election footing behind Trump follows RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel saying after the former president defeated Haley in Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary that it was time for Republicans to unite behind the frontrunner and focus on defeating President Joe Biden," he wrote.
Haley put out a statement on the matter shortly after the news broke, according to Semafor's Dave Weigel.
"Who cares what the RNC says?" said the statement. "We'll let millions of Republican voters across the country decide who should be our party's nominee, not a bunch of Washington insiders."
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The statement added, "If Ronna McDaniel wants to be helpful, she can organize a debate in South Carolina, unless she's also worried that Trump can't handle being on the stage for 90 minutes with Nikki Haley."
Trump has already pulled off decisive wins in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, but still saw a sizeable opposition vote in both states. The next contest in which both Trump and Haley will be on the same ballot is the South Carolina primary.