US PRESIDENTIAL HOPEFUL Nikki Haley has lost another state in the Republican primaries to frontrunner Donald Trump – but is refusing to drop out of the race yet.

Haley, a former United Nations ambassador, lost the Republican primary in South Carolina at the weekend, a disappointing but unsurprising defeat in her home state.

Other Republicans who put themselves forward dropped out weeks ago as Trump surged ahead but Haley has stayed in the race, writing on social media last night that “huge numbers of Republican primary voters are saying that they want an alternative” to Trump.

Analysts have said they believe Haley is staying in the race not because of any prospect of beating Trump in the primaries but on the chance that the former president could be ruled out by legal trouble or for health reasons.

I’m fighting because huge numbers of Republican primary voters are saying that they want an alternative. And because 70 percent of Americans don’t want to see a Trump-Biden rematch. pic.twitter.com/JhROaOTJUz

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 25, 2024

Speaking after the voting in South Carolina, where she formerly served as governor and received just under 40% of the ballots, Haley said that the proportion of Republican voters who do not favour Trump would make it hard for him to win the election against Democrat Joe Biden.

“He’s not going to get that 40% if he’s going and calling out my supporters and saying they’re ‘barred permanently from MAGA’,” she said, referencing comments by Trump directed at donors to her campaign.

“He’s not going to get the 40% by calling them names.”

Haley has committed to staying in the primary until at 5 March, a day known as ‘Super Tuesday’, when multiple primaries will be held. Before that will be Michigan’s primary tomorrow.

Her campaign said that Haley raised one million dollars “from grassroots supporters alone” in the 24 hours since her latest primary defeat, which they argued “demonstrates Mrs Haley’s staying power and her appeal to broad swaths of the American public”.

After the South Carolina polls closed, Trump said he had “never seen the Republican Party so unified as it is right now”.

“You can celebrate for about 15 minutes, but then we have to get back to work,” he told his supporters.

Additional reporting by Press Association and AFP