SALEM, New Hampshire — Republican presidential rivals Donald Trump and Nikki Haley accused each other of being darlings of the “establishment” in their final pitches to New Hampshire voters ahead of the state’s primary.
The two are locked in a one-on-one fight to become the GOP’s 2024 nominee and will face off Tuesday at the polls in the Granite State.
Trump is averaging 54.9% compared to Haley’s 36.7% in the first-in-the-nation primary state, per RealClearPolitics’ calculation.
At her Monday night rally at the Artisan Hotel in Salem, Haley argued Trump “can have” the support of the increasing number of elected officials in his corner, because that only proves he’s a product of the “establishment.”
Haley said she’s largely behind in endorsements — even in her home state of South Carolina — because she was willing to hold officials “accountable.”
The former South Carolina Governor argued she made officials in her state show “their votes on the record” and “vetoed half a billion dollars of their pet projects.”
The comments echoed similar remarks Haley made Sunday at a campaign stop in Epping, New Hampshire.
“I pushed back on them when I was governor. I forced them to show their votes on the record, that they weren’t hiding by voice votes. I forced them to pass ethics reform that they didn’t want to do,” Haley argued.
Trump is backed by a large majority of South Carolina officials, including Gov. Henry McMaster, Lieutenant Gov. Pamela Evette, state Attorney General Alan Wilson and state House Speaker Murrell Smith.
Haley won’t get the support of a lot of Congress members either, she said, because she’s proposing term limits in Washington.
Meanwhile, the former commander in chief is touting his number of endorsements as evidence that he can get the GOP united behind him.
Trump received additional endorsements Sunday afternoon after 2024 rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out of the race, including from the governor himself and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
On Monday, Trump appeared on stage with former presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum.
Over the course of his campaign, Trump’s team has claimed Haley is the definition of “establishment” due to her backing from “Democrats, Wall Street and Globalists.”
Trump tore into her “establishment” record at a rally in Manchester Saturday night, arguing “Nikki Haley has made an unholy alliance with RINOs, Never Trumpers, Americans for No Prosperity, globalists, and Radical Left Communists to get liberals and Biden supporters to vote for her in the Republican Primary.”
SFA Fund Inc, Haley’s super PAC, received $250,000 from Democratic donor Reid Hoffman.
The former UN ambassador defended the donor money at the time, saying the other candidates are “just jealous.”
Haley’s rise in New Hampshire is partly due to the large share of independents in the state who are looking for a Trump alternative.
If she doesn’t defeat Trump at the polls on Tuesday, Haley has said she will continue on to South Carolina, but that she’s taking it “one state at a time.”
“In Iowa I wanted to be strong. We did that. We started at 2%, we ended at 20%,” Haley told The Post during a campaign stop Sunday afternoon.
“In New Hampshire, I want to be even stronger than that, and in South Carolina I want to be even stronger than that. We’ll find out what ‘strong’ and ‘stronger’ is on Election Day, but that’s the goal. That’s always been the goal.”
