COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA — Nikki Haley has a message for former President Donald Trump: “I’m not going anywhere.”

Haley, Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations and the sole candidate standing in his way to a third straight Republican presidential nomination, is in the midst of a monthlong, all-or-nothing effort to win the primary in her home state of South Carolina. And she’s finally taking pointed shots at Trump’s age, character, and overall fitness for office along the way.

Haley spent the early months of her campaign focusing attacks on Trump for ballooning the national debt while in office. However, since coming in second place in New Hampshire, she has pulled a page out of President Joe Biden’s own playbook and started specifically blaming the former president for shepherding Republicans’ losses in the 2018, 2020, 2022, and 2023 elections, as well as highlighting his stated quest for “revenge” as the primary motivator behind his 2024 campaign.

“How many times do we have to do this before we realize that that’s not a winning scenario? Look at any of the general election polls,” she said at a campaign event in Hilton Head Thursday evening. “There was one that came out yesterday. It said that Donald Trump lost by 7 points to Biden. The one that came out today had a margin of error. In every one of those polls, I defeat Biden by up to 17 points.”

Haley additionally flat-out said that Trump is too old to be president and is slipping mentally, highlighting his recent responses to his legal woes and Haley’s own performance in New Hampshire.

“The night of New Hampshire, when we came in with 43%, he threw a total temper tantrum. He was unhinged, and all he talked about was revenge,” she said. “What bothers me is after the election in New Hampshire, and after the rant from the court case, he never talked about the American people. He never talked about the state of our economy or the lawlessness of our border or the wars that we have. He only talked about himself, and that’s the problem. The reason I’m doing this is I don’t want my kids to live like this. We can do better.”

Haley’s campaign believes that a win in the Palmetto State will galvanize her 2024 nomination hopes just like it did for President Joe Biden in 2020, yet multiple Republican strategists familiar with her campaign’s strategy think it’s “too little, too late.”

“I’m glad to see her finally attacking Trump. Republican candidates, specifically DeSantis, made a huge mistake by trying to dance around him and hope he might not make it through to the convention for whatever reason,” one strategist told the Washington Examiner. “I just don’t know if there’s enough time for GOP voters outside of South Carolina to really see how strong of a fighter Nikki is. I wish she’d done this sooner.”

Haley campaign officials tell the Washington Examiner there’s a specific reason Haley waited until this point to start launching attacks of her own against the former president. Simply, the Republican field was too crowded, and there was a sense that going too hard too early would lump her in with the likes of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a candidate who appeared to only be running as part of his personal vendetta against Trump.

Haley herself spoke to this dynamic while campaigning in both Columbia and Hilton Head, South Carolina, on Thursday.

“Let’s look at the state of the race. There were 14 of us. We moved those fellows out one at a time. Now we’ve got one left,” she stated. “We started in Iowa with 2%, and we got up to 20%. Then we went to New Hampshire, and we got 43%. But what’s important, Trump as the incumbent Republican did not get 43% of the vote. Think about that. That’s what you’re gonna have in a general election.”

Attendance at Haley’s Thursday campaign events and meet-and-greets at local barbecue joints certainly indicates she is pulling voters outside of the traditional Republican or MAGA bases.

South Carolina is an open primary state and allows cross-party participation in primary elections. The Washington Examiner spoke with more than 20 attendees on Thursday who were either Democrats or independents who had already made up their minds to vote for Haley in the primary, and the general if she makes it that far.

Ashely R., an economics Ph.D. student at the University of South Carolina who attended Haley’s Columbia event, told the Washington Examiner that she voted for Biden in 2020 but plans to vote Republican, assuming Haley is the nominee, for the first time in her life in 2024.

She specifically cited Biden’s age as a core concern, claimed to be unimpressed with his economic policy after three years in office, and added that she appreciated Haley’s nuanced stance on abortion in nationally televised Republican debates.

Rebecca B., a retiree who is volunteering for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s independent presidential campaign, also voted for Biden in 2020, and explained to the Washington Examiner that she wants to see Haley add Kennedy as her vice president.

Justin W., an entrepreneur and “faith leader,” told the Washington Examiner that he typically votes Democratic, abstained from voting in 2020 and had been leaning toward doing the same in 2024, but is now seriously considering voting for Haley.

“I just came for the atmosphere and to talk with folks,” Justin, who is blind, said in a brief interview after Haley’s Columbia remarks. “But she makes a compelling argument, and I think it’s time we got some new blood up there running things.”

Haley enjoyed similar crossover appeal in New Hampshire, where she pulled more than 70% of all non-Republican voters taking part in that state’s primary in late January, but Republican operatives again worry that she won’t be able to compete in closed primary states.

“Let’s say everything goes perfectly in South Carolina. Biden’s going to be the nominee, so you can reasonably make the argument that some Democrats vote for Haley on Feb. 24, and she wins,” one operative told the Washington Examiner. “That simply cannot happen in Pennsylvania or Florida or Kentucky.”

Haley appears to be shutting out the noise, however, and is solely focused on winning South Carolina, despite still trailing Trump by 27 points in the RealClearPolitics polling aggregate in her home state.

She plans to hold rallies in Lancaster, South Carolina, on Friday and another on Daniel Island in Charleston on Sunday, where she’ll likely reiterate a point she tried to make on Thursday referencing Trump’s recent push to force the Republican National Committee to preemptively declare him the party’s nominee.

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“That backfired and they’re not going to do it, but think about that. Why is the political elite pushing us to name a nominee when only two states have voted?” Haley said in Hilton Head. “There are 48 states and more territories that haven’t voted. In the delegate count, you need 1,215 delegates. Donald Trump has 32. I have 17. Why would we stop now?”

The South Carolina Republican primary takes place on Feb. 24.