Well… if I were her, I’d try to ignore it as much as possible. But, assuming that you do have to acknowledge it at some level, my framing would probably be: “I received more votes than every other registered candidate combined. When this race began, everyone thought the contenders would be Ron DeSantis and Vivek and Trump. No one thought I’d be a contender. Well, DeSantis and Vivek aren’t even here. I took votes off them and I’m still standing, and just watch—I’ll start taking votes off Trump, too.”
It would still be a big joke, like Ms. Haley herself, but I think that’s probably the right way to at least start trying to spin it.
Well… if I were her, I’d try to ignore it as much as possible. But, assuming that you do have to acknowledge it at some level, my framing would probably be: “I received more votes than every other registered candidate combined. When this race began, everyone thought the contenders would be Ron DeSantis and Vivek and Trump. No one thought I’d be a contender. Well, DeSantis and Vivek aren’t even here. I took votes off them and I’m still standing, and just watch—I’ll start taking votes off Trump, too.”
It would still be a big joke, like Ms. Haley herself, but I think that’s probably the right way to at least start trying to spin it.