Nikki Haley won’t debate Ron DeSantis without Trump as 2024 race heads to New Hampshire

DES MOINES, Iowa — Debate drama has overtaken the race for the Republican nomination as the contenders move on to New Hampshire from Iowa.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley announced Tuesday she would only appear onstage with GOP frontrunner Donald Trump or President Biden — not solely with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — as the Trump rivals lick their wounds following their blowout loss to the former president in the Hawkeye State.

“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” Haley said in a statement. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”

DeSantis quickly fired back, saying Haley was “afraid to debate because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions such as how she got rich off Boeing after giving them millions in taxpayer handouts as governor of South Carolina.

“The reality is that she is not running for the nomination, she’s running to be Trump’s VP,” DeSantis added in his statement on X. “I won’t snub New Hampshire voters like both Nikki Haley and Donald Trump, and plan to honor my commitments. I look forward to debating two empty podiums in the Granite State this week.”

Trump, Haley and DeSantis are all eligible to take part in two Granite State debates ahead of the Jan. 23 first-in-the-nation primary.

The first debate, to be hosted by ABC News, is scheduled for Thursday, while CNN will hold a forum on Sunday. Both will take place at Saint Anselm College in Manchester.

Haley and DeSantis previously squared off Jan. 10 at Drake University in Des Moines.

Trump, 77, has skipped all five debates so far, citing his massive polling lead.

Biotech mogul Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race Monday night and said he would join Trump in campaigning in the Granite State Tuesday.

DeSantis made his first stop in South Carolina Tuesday before planning to travel on to New Hampshire for a CNN town hall. The visit to the first-in-the-South primary state is an indication that the Florida governor has his sights set on competing with Haley on her home turf, where she’s polling in a distant second place behind Trump.

The DeSantis campaign has repeatedly highlighted his 74 endorsements by South Carolina elected officials compared to Haley’s 14.

Both DeSantis and Haley face an uphill climb to wrest the GOP nomination from Trump after he bested DeSantis by almost 30 points in Iowa, the most lopsided margin of victory in the modern history of the Republican caucus, dating back to 1976.

However, both have vowed to keep up the fight.

“It’s a long haul for delegates,” DeSantis told ABC News. “These early states are proportional anyways, so we’re mindful of that. We’re competing in Nevada against Donald Trump, Nikki Haley is not, she did not sign up for the caucus. I think you gotta accumulate delegates.”

The Florida governor had previously said he was hoping to “win” in Iowa, where his campaign had devoted the majority of time and resources.

After his distant second-place finish, DeSantis reframed the race as having given him and Trump the only “two tickets” out of Iowa.

Meanwhile, Haley’s campaign argued that Trump will have a more difficult time in the next two primary states.

“The race now moves to less Trump-friendly territory. And the field of candidates is effectively down to two, with only Trump and Nikki Haley having substantial support in both New Hampshire and South Carolina. That never happened in the 2016 nominating contest, when a larger field allowed Trump to win many primaries with pluralities rather than majorities,” Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney said in a statement.

Per the RealClearPolitics average, Haley is polling at 29.3% in New Hampshire, compared to Trump’s 43.5%. Before former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (averaging 11.3% support) dropped out, DeSantis was polling in fourth at 6.5%.

The polls may change given Iowa’s results. In a New Hampshire survey released Tuesday, American Research Group — the most consistently pro-Haley pollster — showed her and Trump in a flat-footed tie with 40% support among likely Republican primary voters.

DeSantis, meanwhile, polled at 4%, tied with the now-departed Ramaswamy and behind “Undecided,” which 9% of respondents put themselves down as.

In South Carolina, Trump is averaging 52.0% support, Haley is at 21.8% and DeSantis has 11.0%, according to RCP.