Haley raises $1M in days after debate

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley raised $1 million in the days following her participation in the first GOP presidential debate last week. 

Haley told Fox News in an interview that her campaign has had a “fantastic response” since the first debate in Milwaukee, bringing in the million in the first 72 hours after the event. 

“We’ve had thousands of people volunteer,” she said, “We’ve had a lot of people join the campaign. The phones are still ringing.”

“But it only keeps us more motivated, because we have a country to save,” Haley added.

The former ambassador to the United Nations was seen by some as a winner of the night, sparring with other major candidates such as conservative entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. Some observers also said she seemed to focus her strategy on a general election audience rather than a primary debate. 

Haley told Fox that she enjoys debates because they are a “great opportunity for the American people to see the candidates and their options.” 

“You take the most of the time you’re given to really get the substance, solutions and the policy out there, and that’s what I tried to do,” she said. 

Haley was part of a few memorable moments from the first debate in which she denounced Ramaswamy’s foreign policy proposals, declaring, “You have no foreign policy experience, and it shows,” receiving applause from the audience. She also argued with former Vice President Mike Pence that a federal abortion ban is not likely to pass through the Senate and that a “consensus” must be reached on the issue. 

While she has mostly struggled to break out of the mid-single digits in polls of the Republican candidates, a national Emerson College poll taken following the debate did show her rise from from 2 percent to 7 percent after the event, tied with Pence for fourth place. 

She said her strategy for the second GOP debate in California next month will be about letting the country know her “leadership,” demonstrated by her time as governor of South Carolina and U.N. ambassador. 

“I think the best way to see what kind of leader someone’s going to be is to see how hard they fight on a campaign, and that’s what I’m trying to show them,” Haley said.