{"id":29019,"date":"2024-02-28T01:32:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-28T08:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nikki-haley-came-to-colorado-heres-how-her-visit-went\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T00:46:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T06:46:44","slug":"nikki-haley-came-to-colorado-heres-how-her-visit-went","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/nikki-haley-came-to-colorado-heres-how-her-visit-went\/","title":{"rendered":"Nikki Haley came to Colorado. Here\u2019s how her visit went"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign stop Tuesday in Centennial. (David Zalubowski\/Associated Press)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley took aim at former President Donald Trump during a rally in Colorado on Tuesday, one week before the state\u2019s presidential primary election.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo Republican statewide has gotten more than 45% statewide since Donald Trump became president,\u201d Haley said of Colorado\u2019s elections. \u201cEverywhere he goes, chaos follows him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The former U.N. ambassador criticized Trump, her former boss, over big spending and higher national debt during his administration, as well as his recent opposition to a congressional bill that would have spent billions to strengthen border security. She blended in criticism of President Joe Biden along the way, saying she has a better chance of beating the Democrat than Trump does.<\/p>\n

Here are the big takeaways from the event:<\/p>\n

Haley on the issues<\/div>\n

Haley, a former accountant, started out the rally talking about reining in the national debt and reducing the size of the federal government. She criticized COVID aid passed by Congress while Trump was president, alleging high levels of fraud and promising to investigate it. And she said she\u2019d cut taxes for the middle class and simplify tax brackets, though she didn\u2019t provide specifics on her plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you think it\u2019s finally time we had an accountant in the White House?\u201d she said to cheers at Wings Over the Rockies in Arapahoe County. \u201cWe\u2019ll stop the spending, we\u2019ll stop the borrowing.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also vowed to crack down on people crossing the southern border illegally and institute a national program requiring businesses to verify that their employees are authorized to work, similar to the one she created in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s defund sanctuary cities once and for all,\u201d she said to more cheers. \u201cInstead of catch and release, we\u2019re going to go to catch and deport.\u201d<\/p>\n

While she said she disagreed with some aspects of the recent immigration compromise that Senate Republicans rejected at Trump\u2019s behest, she said those in Congress should have kept working to improve the proposal.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonald Trump comes in, says, \u2018Don\u2019t pass anything until after the general election\u2019 and Congress went home on vacation for two weeks,\u201d she said. \u201cCongress needs to do their job and Trump needs to stay out of it. Period.\u201d<\/p>\n

She vowed to take better care of veterans who sometimes end up homeless and struggle with access to health care. And she attacked Trump on his resistance to providing more financial aid to Ukraine in its war against Russia.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe emboldened (Russian President Vladimir) Putin and he put every one of our men and women serving there in danger,\u201d Haley said. \u201cWe need a president who understands the No. 1 job is to prevent war, period. Believe Putin when he says once he takes Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next.\u201d<\/p>\n

What some attendees said about Haley v. Trump<\/div>\n

Holly Riecks, a 52-year-old teacher and Republican from Highlands Ranch, wore a pro-Haley T-shirt with the slogan \u201cBarred Permanently,\u201d a reference to Trump\u2019s opposition to Haley remaining in the race. Riecks moved through the crowd with a clipboard seeking volunteers to join her in working for the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe is the best-qualified candidate,\u201d Riecks said. \u201cI just don\u2019t feel like we have the relationships with people abroad that we used to, and that we have really come apart at the seams as a country. We\u2019re very divided. And she\u2019s a unifier.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riecks said she voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. That won\u2019t happen again, she said, even if he\u2019s the nominee.<\/p>\n

Karthik Krishna, a Golden entrepreneur originally from India, said he voted for Trump in 2020 but came to the rally to hear what Haley had to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just like I want to blindly support somebody,\u201d he said. \u201cI want to talk to her about U.S. policy toward Ukraine, because it feels like we are more for war with a theme, that war is good for business, rather than saying, \u2018We want lasting peace.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t voted in the primary yet, and likes Trump because he \u201cunderstands how the U.S. has been exploited on the global stage.\u201d But, Krishna said, \u201cIt\u2019s too early. I don\u2019t want to lock myself in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, outside the venue, 75-year-old Boulder Democrat Julia McKay was handing out flyers encouraging people to sign a petition demanding that the 81-year-old Biden abandon his bid for a second term. She said she\u2019d already cast a vote for \u201cnoncommitted delegate\u201d on the Democratic presidential primary ballot. But she came to the rally to hear what Haley had to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m interested in her as a candidate. I like her personally,\u201d McKay said. \u201cI think she\u2019s pretty centrist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Trump factor<\/div>\n

Haley is betting big on Super Tuesday \u2014 March 5 \u2014 when Colorado is among 15 states holding presidential primaries. But there\u2019s not much evidence to indicate it will turn her struggling campaign around.<\/p>\n

The former South Carolina governor lost to Trump by 20 percentage points in her home state Saturday.<\/p>\n

A recent poll conducted by Global Strategies Group, a Democratic firm, showed that 76% of registered Republican voters in Colorado viewed former President Donald Trump favorably, while 23% viewed him unfavorably. The margin of error for registered Republicans in that poll was plus or minus 7.1%, and they made up 23% of the 800 respondents. That\u2019s slightly less than the 24% of registered voters who are Republican.<\/p>\n

Two-thirds of unaffiliated voters surveyed, who are eligible to vote in the Republican primary, have an unfavorable view of the former president. Unaffiliated voters make up 48% of Colorado\u2019s registered voters.<\/p>\n

Haley noted that she\u2019s the last candidate standing between Trump and the nomination. She cited a recent poll that shows her defeating Biden by a significant margin, unlike Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you want to start winning again, you have to have someone on the ticket who can win,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She concluded by asking attendees for their vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cTuesday is election day, so this is what I need you to do: Vote. Vote,\u201d Haley said. \u201cI need you to make sure that 10 other people vote along with you. In a general election you\u2019re given a choice. In a primary election you make your choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

While a few hundred people attended Haley\u2019s rally, that doesn\u2019t mean she\u2019s got the support of the state\u2019s GOP.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Republican Party, which has endorsed Trump, sent an email to supporters Monday bashing the national conservative nonprofit Americans for Prosperity for supporting Haley.<\/p>\n

AFP announced this week that it would stop spending to support Haley\u2019s presidential campaign to focus on congressional contests.<\/p>\n

About 50 people attended a fundraising luncheon before Haley\u2019s public talk.<\/p>\n

Haley and Trump have each raised just over $1 million from Coloradans through the end of January, while President Joe Biden raised $1.3 million.<\/p>\n

Super Tuesday a week away<\/div>\n

It\u2019s too late to mail in ballots for the presidential primary Tuesday. They must instead be delivered to a ballot drop box in your county. Through Tuesday, 300,092 Republican ballots and 221,250 Democratic ballots had been returned, with another 126,941 being processed.<\/p>\n

Results of the primaries will be used by Democratic and Republican parties to apportion delegates to national nominating conventions later this summer.<\/p>\n

The Colorado GOP will send 37 delegates to the national convention, with three from each of the state\u2019s eight congressional districts and 10 selected at the state assembly, along with the party chair and two national committee members.<\/p>\n

The Republican bylaws say delegates will be allocated proportionately to candidates who receive 20% of the vote or more.<\/p>\n

There are seven GOP candidates listed on the Colorado ballot, although five have dropped out. Those four haven\u2019t asked to be dropped in Colorado, so their votes will be counted by the Secretary of State\u2019s Office. It\u2019s unclear what will happen regarding Republican delegates if any of those candidates receive 20% or more of the vote.<\/p>\n

Those seven candidates paid $20,000 or $40,000 to get Colorado GOP approval to make the ballot, with Haley paying the larger amount. Those paying the lesser amount were supposed to make a campaign stop in the state or hold a fundraiser for the state Republican Party.<\/p>\n

The Colorado Sun is a reader-supported, nonpartisan news organization dedicated to covering Colorado issues. To learn more, go to coloradosun.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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