Off to Michigan, Nikki Haley is staying in the race despite Donald Trump’s easy primary win in South Carolina

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley says it’s not “the end of our story” despite Donald Trump’s easy primary victory in South Carolina, her home state where the onetime Governor had long suggested her competitiveness with the former President would show.

Defying calls from South Carolina Republicans to exit the race, Haley planned to travel Sunday to Michigan, which holds its primary on Tuesday.

With his win Saturday in the first-in-the South contest, Trump has now swept every primary or caucus on the GOP early-season calendar that awards delegates. His performances have left little maneuvering room for Haley, his former U.N. ambassador.

“I have never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now,” Trump said in a victory night celebration in Columbia.

The AP called the race for Trump at 7 p.m., when polls closed statewide. That race call was based on an analysis of AP VoteCast, a comprehensive survey of Republican South Carolina Primary voters. The survey confirmed the findings of pre-Election Day polls showing Trump far outpacing Haley statewide.

A 2020 rematch between Trump and President Joe Biden is becoming increasingly inevitable. Haley has vowed to stay in the race through at least the batch of primaries on March 5, known as Super Tuesday, but was unable to dent Trump’s momentum in her home state despite holding far more campaign events and arguing that the indictments against Trump will hamstring him against Biden.

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Published with permission of the Associated Press.