Nikki Haley to deliver ‘State of the Presidential Race’ address Tuesday in Greenville

GREENVILLE, S.C. (WCBD) – Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley will deliver a speech Tuesday which her campaign says is focused on the “state of the presidential race.”

Haley, the former South Carolina governor, has been crisscrossing the state holding campaign rallies and speaking to supporters in hopes of an upset in Saturday’s presidential preference primary.

Details of the speech in Greenville, South Carolina are unknown; however, its announcement has fueled some unfounded speculation online that Haley may be dropping out of the race. Haley and her campaign have been steadfast in saying the campaign will continue well after the Palmetto State’s primary election.

The hopeful candidate told the Associated Press on Tuesday that she was staying in the race until roughly 20 other states hold their primaries — through Super Tuesday — which is held March 5.

“Ten days after South Carolina, another 20 states vote. I mean, this isn’t Russia. We don’t want someone to go in and just get 99% of the vote,” Haley told the AP. “What is the rush? Why is everybody so panicked about me having to get out of this race?”

Her campaign also announced Tuesday morning who will serve on Haley’s leadership team in Vermont ahead of Super Tuesday, and the campaign recently made a large ad buy, primarily for Michigan.

News 2 will stream Haley’s speech live beginning at noon.

Meanwhile, a new poll out Tuesday from Emerson College Polling/The Hill found support for Haley’s campaign has seen some growth in recent weeks with 35% of decided South Carolina voters saying that would support Haley over Trump’s 58%.

When factoring in undecided voters, which accounted for 7% of those surveyed, Trump’s support increases to 61% to Haley’s 39%.

Despite still trailing by double-digits, the numbers are a positive sign for Haley who has spent time in every corner of the state over the past two weeks in a feverish attempt to cut into Trump’s commanding lead.

“What our data shows is that this is an increasingly close race,” Mark Harris, Chief Strategist for the Pro-Haley Super PAC, SFA Fund said on CNN’s Inside Politics last week. “I think you’re going to see a very strong showing. It’s going to shock a lot of people.”

Haley has maintained that she does not need to win South Carolina to remain a viable candidate but that she needs to improve upon her performance in New Hampshire.

“We need to close that gap. We did that in New Hampshire. We were 25 points behind, and we closed, we came in about 25 points in the last three weeks of the election. Our goal is to close that gap, to make sure we do that here,” Haley told News 2 in early February.

Haley will hold campaign events in Greenville, Clemson, North Augusta, Beaufort, Georgetown, Myrtle Beach, Moncks Corner, and Mount Pleasant in the coming days.

South Carolina’s Republican presidential preference primary will take place on Saturday, February 24. Early voting ends on Thursday.