DALLAS — Days after her visit across Texas, Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has named a number of prominent Texas conservatives to lead her campaign in this state, signaling her campaign will continue despite poll results.
Former U.S. Congressman Will Hurd and former Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price will lead Haley’s Texas staff, her campaign announced Tuesday.
“Texas is looking for a true conservative who can serve eight years, and there’s no doubt that Nikki Haley fits that bill,” Price said in a statement from the Haley campaign. “It’s time for the next generation to take over and to leave the baggage of the past behind.”
"It's time to cast aside the grumpy old men for a new generation of leadership," Hurd added in a statement from the Haley campaign.
Haley was in Texas last week, fundraising and rallying supporters in Dallas and San Antonio. She pledged to stay in the race for the Republican nomination despite trailing Donald Trump in polls and not having won a state in any of the early contests.
“If Donald Trump is our nominee, we lose. There will be a female President of the United States. It will either be me. Or it will be Kamala Harris,” Haley told Inside Texas Politics on Sunday.
A Texas survey this month from the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs showed Trump commanding 80% of support from likely voters here in the March 5th Republican primary. Haley was second at 19%.
"Is Nikki trying to replace Kamala on Biden's ticket? As unbelievable as it may be, it’s the only logical explanation for what has become a campaign in futility,” said Alex Pfeiffer, spokesman for Make America Great Again Inc., in a statement on Tuesday.
Still, Haley is fueled by Republican donors who want someone other than Trump. Their financial support allows her to remain in the race and continue to build out staff in states across the country. Haley also recently named campaign leadership in California, Vermont and Wisconsin.
Among the Texans that Haley named to her campaign leadership are Harlan and Kathy Crow, prominent Republican donors, along with the following conservatives:
• Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker
• Hon. Kyle Kacal and Marci Kacal, State Representative and Business Leader
• Hon. Mac Thornberry, Former Member of Congress, 13th Congressional District, and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee
• Hon. Lamar Smith, Former Member of Congress, 21st Congressional District
• Hon. Will Hurd, Former Member of Congress, 23rd Congressional District
• Hon. Jeanne Johnson Phillips, Former U.S. Ambassador
• Hon. Gregory Slayton, Former U.S. Ambassador
• Hon. Hope Andrade, Former Texas Secretary of State
• Ned Holmes, Former Texas Transportation Commissioner, Former Port of Houston Board, Business Leader
• Hon. Joe Straus, Former Texas Speaker
• Hon. Patricia Harless, Former State Representative
• Hon. Linda Koop, Former State Representative
• Hon. Dee Margo, Former Mayor of El Paso
• Hon. Betsy Price, former Mayor of Fort Worth
• Hon. Florence Shapiro, Former State Senator
• Arun Agarwal, business leader
• Lucy Billingsley, business leader
• Stacey Blakeley, CEO at The Policy Circle
• Maria Garza Brown, Women for Nikki Texas
• Gene Dawson, business leader
• Helen Delavan, community leader
• Marilyn & George DeMontrond, community leader, business leader
• Mindy Ellmer, Women for Nikki Texas
• Gil Hine, Business Leader
• Nancy Ann and Ray L. Hunt, business Leaders
• Karen Johnson Rove, Women for Nikki Texas
• Daniel Lubetzky, Business Leader
• Mia Garza McCord, Women for Nikki Texas
• John L. Nau, III, Business Leader
• Roxann Neumann, business leader
• Ellen Ramsey, Midland County Republican Women
• Jenifer Sarver, business leader
• Nancy Seliger, Women for Nikki Texas
• Bryan Sheffield, business leader
• Ed Whitacre, business leader
• Fred Zeidman, Republican Jewish Coalition Board of Director