CNN’s Dana Bash grilled Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley on Tuesday over her definition of “success” after losing in Iowa and expectations she will lose in New Hampshire.
Haley placed third in the Iowa caucus but claimed the result made it a “two-person race,” despite Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis beating her. Haley received 19% of the vote while DeSantis won 21.2%. Former President Donald Trump won 51% of the vote and swept 98 out of 99 counties in the state.
Trump currently holds a lead of 60%-38% over Haley, according to a Suffolk University/NBC10 Boston/Boston Globe tracking poll. The poll was conducted from Jan. 21-22 and has a 4.4% margin of error.
Bash pressed Haley on her race and whether it’s been successful. Haley argued the goal is to be “stronger in New Hampshire than we were in Iowa.”
“We want to be stronger in South Carolina than we were in New Hampshire. It’s a building game, that’s what you want when you run in an election, you just want to keep getting stronger and stronger and stronger. That’s our goal.”
“So how do you define success?” Bash asked.
“We’ll find out tonight when we see the numbers!” Haley said. “I mean, I think y’all will be defining whether it was successful or not –”
“How do you define it?” Bash pressed.
“If we’re stronger than what we did in Iowa, then I, to me, we’re moving on.”
“I mean, Iowa was not, Iowa was a big night for Donald Trump. You only won one of 99 counties by one vote, so the bar is pretty low,” Bash said, with Haley arguing it was still a “big night” for her as well.
“We started with 2%, we ended with 20% and that brought us into New Hampshire with a one-on-one race, I would say that was pretty good,” Haley said. (RELATED: Dean Phillips Asks CNN Hosts Point Blank If They’re Being Honest With Viewers That DNC Is ‘Suppressing’ Voters)
Trump also holds a large lead in favorability among registered Republican voters in the state with 76%, the Suffolk University/NBC10 Boston/Boston Globe poll found. Haley leads in support amongst independent voters but has only managed to garner 22% of Republican support in New Hampshire.
NBC’s Steve Kornacki warned Monday that even though Haley is doing well amongst independents, her inability to breakthrough with the core republican base will hurt her.