DES MOINES, Iowa — There are typically three proverbial tickets out of Iowa, but former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley is hoping there will only be two this election cycle.

Haley is seeking to put pressure on Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) through Monday night’s caucuses in Iowa, where he needs to perform if he wants his 2024 campaign to progress on to New Hampshire, where polls indicate Haley is closing in on the Republican primary’s front-runner, former President Donald Trump.

Despite Haley’s recent mistakes, her campaign has experienced momentum since the start of the debates last summer, improving her polling, particularly in more centrist New Hampshire, and her fundraising. But her popularity has also increased in more conservative Iowa’s population centers, thanks, in part, to independents and Democrats who dislike Trump, providing her with the opportunity to propel DeSantis out of the race by coming in second place.

Teresa Egli, a Haley precinct caucus captain who decided to support the candidate based on her tenures as South Carolina’s governor and at the U.N., described her after a caucus eve event in Ames as a hard worker who is “smart” and “tough.”

“She didn’t let those boys, as she calls them, push her around in the debates,” the Nevada banker, 64, told the Washington Examiner. “Trump just isn’t going to get in the ring with her, which I don’t like. I think he needs to get out there because, what he did four years ago, we’ve changed as a country, and he needs to get in the ring and talk about what he would do going forward.”

As Haley’s campaign anticipates a two-person contest in New Hampshire between Haley and Trump, supporters, such as former Texas Rep. Will Hurd, are reminding caucusgoers of Haley’s chances against President Joe Biden in a hypothetical general election.

“Head to head, Nikki Haley beats Joe Biden by double digits, by 17 points,” Hurd said in an interview after last week’s debate. “People have not been talking about that or seeing that, and that is something that is starting to get seeped into people’s consciousness and how valuable that is. It’s a high likelihood that Republicans lose the House in this upcoming election. With 17-plus coattails, that prevents that kind of stuff from happening.”

Although public opinion regarding Haley in Iowa has risen, she has the advantage of low expectations, a perception that has irked the DeSantis campaign as the Haley camp, including her outside groups such as Koch Industries-funding Americans for Prosperity Action, spends tens of millions of dollars for her and against him. Since Jan. 1, for instance, AFP Action has knocked on 50,000 doors in Iowa.

“I do think we’re seeing Americans for Prosperity,” Kim McAdams, a 68-year-old West Des Moines retiree, said after a Haley meet-and-greet in Waukee. “I have received probably three or four mailings from them, and I have received two door-knocks from them. I do think they have a very large grassroots organization, and I think that is definitely helping Haley.”

After a Trump campaign rally with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in Keokuk, Kristie Jacobe — who, along with her husband Matthew, drove more than three hours for Greene’s appearance — reported being mailed Haley literature and sent text messages about her “all the time.”

“She got one just sitting here tonight,” Matthew Jacobe said of his wife’s Haley texts.

While $7.9 million was spent on pro-Haley ads in January, in comparison to $6.1 million on pro-DeSantis spots, the Florida governor’s super PAC Never Back Down has knocked on 940,000 doors since he launched his campaign last May, complementing his tour of all 99 of Iowa’s counties.

Regardless, Andrew Romeo, DeSantis’s communications director, emphasized Haley’s not mentioning slavery when asked what prompted the Civil War and telling New Hampshire voters they would have to “correct” the outcome of Iowa’s caucuses after the debate.

“The reality is she’s had a bad couple of weeks,” Romeo said. “[During the debate], [when] she was given a chance to actually defend her record, she just wanted to talk about a website the whole time and used it as a verbal crutch. Iowans don’t like that. The ones that tuned in … are still undecided and [wanted] to hear serious substance from the candidate. They didn’t get that from her, and they don’t get the sense that she can win.”

“She’s on the downhill trajectory in terms of the gaffes, but when it comes to spending, she’s just the top spender in the state, spending more than everybody else and raising expectations,” he added. “[New Hampshire Gov.] Chris Sununu says she needs to come in a strong second, so she’s battling that with the gaffes, and I just think that I’d much rather be us than her right now.”

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David Polyansky, DeSantis’s deputy campaign manager, has also expressed confidence in the governor’s ground game amid predictions for subzero temperatures.

“Nikki Haley was uncomfortable for two hours on that stage,” Polyansky said of the debate. “She was always on defense, very visibly frustrated, and angry at every step of the way. And in a closing pitch days ahead of a race where people are going to have to go out and caucus on a cold night with probably minus 20 degrees, probably minus 30 with the wind chill, that’s not the vision and the view that you want to leave people with.”