Haley courts independents, Democrats as she aims to avoid a blowout to Trump on her home turf

CHARLESTON, S.C. — Nikki Haley is looking to prevent what Donald Trump's presidential campaign predicts will be an "a-- kicking" in her home state of South Carolina Saturday by courting independent voters.

"This is an open primary," Haley emphasized in a "Fox and Friends" interview this week.

The former two-term Palmetto State governor who later served as U.N. ambassador in the former president's administration notes that "anybody can vote in the primary, as long as you didn't vote in the Democrat primary on February 3rd in South Carolina."

Trump is the 2024 GOP frontrunner as he bids a third straight time for the White House. He grabbed a majority of the votes last month in Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary victories and won by a landslide earlier this month in the Nevada and U.S. Virgin Island caucuses to close in on locking up the nomination.

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The final polls in South Carolina showed Trump maintaining a large double-digit lead over Haley, the last remaining major rival challenging the former president.

Independents helped fuel Haley's 43% showing in New Hampshire, where she lost to Trump by 11 points. But while independent voters have long played a crucial and influential role in the first-in-the-nation primary, they are much less of a factor in South Carolina's more conservative electorate, where evangelical voters enjoy prominence in GOP contests.

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A Monmouth University poll about South Carolina's primary conducted last weekend had Trump with a 72%-to-25% lead among Republicans questioned, similar to how he performed with GOP voters in New