(Screenshot courtesy Univision)
Jon Huntsman says the endorsement of Nikki Haley, the governor of South Carolina, will not be "crucial" in that state's second-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary—a judgment he voiced just hours after Haley said she wasn't going to back him in 2012.
Haley , who was elected as a tea party candidate in 2010, told the conservative radio host Laura Ingraham on Thursday that she was unsure whom she would support in the 2012 primary but said she definitely would not endorse Huntsman. She praised his foreign policy experience but said he wasn't conservative enough for her.
"Naturally, I am going to go with someone that philosophically I agree with, and Jon Huntsman is not it," Haley said.
In an interview with Univision's Jorge Ramos, Huntsman shrugged off Haley's snub, insisting he has plenty of other support in South Carolina he can depend on.
"It's not crucial at all. I respect her. I think she's a very good person. I've met her one time," Huntsman, a former governor of Utah and ambassard to China, said. "The person who is one of the lead players in our campaign in South Carolina ran for governor against her, just barely lost. We just got the endorsement of the attorney general of South Carolina, the first constitutional officer in the state to come out and endorse anybody. We have a lot of good support in South Carolina. I like our chances there."
You can watch Huntsman's comments below, via Univision:
Haley was among the first Republican officials from an early primary state that Huntsman met with in the run-up to his 2012 bid. Virtually every 2012 candidate has paraded through Haley's office in recent months to woo the governor. That includes Rick Perry, who met with Haley on the day he announced his presidential campaign.
Yet while Haley has been cagey about whom she intends to support in the primary, she has given strong hints about whom she won't endorse--and it's not just Huntsman who has failed to make the cut. In March, she openly questioned why Newt Gingrich was running, telling reporters his time had passed.
Huntsman has been stuck in the low single digits in most polls since he joined the presidential campaign in June, dogged by his tenure as President Obama's ambassador to China (a position he vacated in spring) and his moderate political views on issues like climate change and civil unions.
In recent weeks, Huntsman has appeared to tinker with his strategy, using more aggressive rhetoric toward his rivals and shifting most of his political focus to New Hampshire—a state where his candidacy stands to have more appeal.
But his campaign has been marked by staff turnover. In July, a month into his bid, his campaign manager resigned. Last month, another staff member forced out of the campaign said the campaign is rife with backstabbing and bickering.
On Thursday, Politico's Jonathan Martin reported that two key members of Huntsman's finance team had left the campaign and were being replaced by Ann Herberger, a longtime fundraiser for Jeb Bush who had been working for Tim Pawlenty's campaign. And Friday, the campaign announced Ben Porritt, a former press aide to George W. Bush and John McCain, was joining the campaign as a communications adviser.
In 2008, Porritt handled press for Sarah Palin when she was named McCain's running mate. But he may be better known for his stint as a communications adviser to New York Yankees slugger Alex Rodriguez in 2009 when the baseball star admitted to using steroids.
