Nikki Haley gets boost, but faces uphill New Hampshire fight with Trump

DES MOINES, Iowa — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley got a lot of help this week in her steep climb to draw political blood from former President Donald Trump in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

With former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie dropping out of the race Wednesday, Haley’s team is racing to consolidate his anti-Trump base behind the former ambassador to the United Nations ahead of the Jan. 23 contest.

“It’s been clear for a while that this is a two-person race between Nikki Haley’s vision for a strong and proud America and Donald Trump’s obsession with the chaos and drama of the past,” Haley spokesperson AnnMarie Graham-Barnes told The Post.

“She not taking any voter for granted, and she’s not taking her foot off the gas.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis begs to differ and is hoping to undercut Haley’s New Hampshire gambit with a strong showing in Monday’s Iowa caucus.

But of the two major non-Trump candidates, Haley’s outlook is brighter — at least for now.

Christie’s withdrawal follows weeks in which Haley’s allies had sought to nudge him out of the contest on the premise that his exit would best serve his mission of taking down Trump.

Polling data has long shown that a huge chunk of Christie’s New Hampshire voters were amenable to Haley. For instance, a recent Emerson College Polling/WHDH survey concluded that 52% of Granite State Christie voters have Haley as their second choice.

At the moment, though, that is still woefully insufficient for her to close the gap.

Trump averages 43.5% support in New Hampshire, followed by Haley at 29.3%, and Christie at 11.3%, according to the latest RealClearPolitics aggregate.

Even if all of Christie’s voters broke for Haley — a big if — she would still be down based on the RCP average.

“Delusion can make people have crazy thoughts,” Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung told The Post when asked about the prospect of a Christie dropout putting Haley over the top.

Water not under the bridge

Christie appears to share Cheung’s outlook, at least if his comments on a hot mic ahead of his dropout announcement are any guide.

“She’s gonna get smoked,” Christie said Wednesday. “And you and I both know it. She’s not up to this.”

Christie has made similar comments in public as well, telling “The View” last week: “How insulting to my voters that you would think that they would immediately just waltz over to Nikki Haley, even though Nikki Haley has called Donald Trump the right president for the right time.”

In addition, before Christie dropped out, both he and DeSantis pummeled Haley over a string of gaffes on the campaign trail, including declining to say slavery was a main cause of the Civil War.

Christie had the highest negative ratings of any Republican candidate in most polls, in large part due to his vociferous Trump criticism.

While the Garden Stater has declined to make an endorsement, publicly backing Haley could expose her to his baggage — if he event meant the support.

Why New Hampshire matters

If Haley can prove her viability with a strong showing in the Granite State, the thinking goes, voters could start paying more attention to her in subsequent contests.

Complicating matters is the fact that New Hampshire allows unaffiliated voters to pick which primary they wish to take part in, which could give a false impression of Haley’s support among registered Republicans in other states’ so-called “closed” primaries.

After New Hampshire, Haley has opted to compete in the Nevada primary instead of the state party-run caucus in Nevada, where the actual delegates will be doled out.

Then, Haley’s home state of South Carolina, where she is trailing Trump by upwards of 30 points in recent polling, will hold its primary Feb. 24.

Trump backers committed

“Among New Hampshire Republican primary voters, Chris Christie is radioactive. If his withdrawal was meant to help Nikki Haley, it will further polarize the primary to be a battle between the Trump conservatives and Haley’s DC establishment base,” the Trump campaign said in a memo following Christie’s departure from the race.

The memo reflects a consistent dynamic on the campaign trail: While other candidate events draw a mix of dedicated fans and uncommitted window-shoppers, Trump supporters are locked in and all-in on their man.

At a recent event Trump event in Iowa, attendee Jill Rowell mock-dry heaved at the mention of Haley’s name.

“Nikki Haley is funded by the ‘Demoncrats.’ They are funding her campaign,” she told The Post.

“She kind of put Iowa to shame last week when she said New Hampshire was going to correct our decisions,” agreed Dan Heffernen.

“I’m not exactly sure why she said that,” he added in disbelief.