Nikki Haley looks ahead to Michigan and Super Tuesday after defeat to Trump in South Carolina

Nikki Haley’s campaign for the presidency chugs along.

The former governor of South Carolina vowed to stay in the race Saturday evening after a defeat in her home state, addressing a pumped-up crowd of supporters in Charleston. Pointing to her speech earlier in the week wherein she promised to keep fighting Donald Trump through Super Tuesday and beyond, Ms Haley declared after her latest loss to Mr Trump: “I’m a woman of my word.”

Her campaign insists that there remains a path forward, not just to provide a rhetorical alternative to Mr Trump, but to win the contest outright. Polls indicate otherwise, although they notably failed to register her momentum in either South Carolina or New Hampshire, the last two competitive primary states.

Both Ms Haley and her supporters appeared to be fired up after her performance on Saturday. While the campaign obviously failed to win, with most votes counted Ms Haley remained near the 40 per cent mark — a clear loss, but a better performance than was predicted. As the governor took the stage, she made two things clear: One, she’s not leaving. And secondly, she doesn’t think Donald Trump can win a general election.

She also took aim at the Republican frontrunner for the increasingly poisonous rhetoric he uses to describe his political foes. Donald Trump, she said, drives people away from the GOP “nearly every day”.

Those statements were Ms Haley’s way of saying, “I’m serious. I’m not kissing the ring.”

And to be clear, her camp is projecting confidence. A source with knowledge of her super PAC’s strategies spoke with reporters Saturday evening after votes came in and told The Independent that Ms Haley had clearly secured a mandate to continue fighting Donald Trump for the nomination.