Republican presidential candidate and self-described "badass woman" Nikki Haley rejected rumors that she is gunning for the vice presidency, saying she doesn't play for second place.
"I think everybody that says, ‘She’s doing this to be vice president,’ needs to understand I don’t run for second,” Haley told Politico.
Haley's confidence belies her poll numbers, which have consistently rated in the single digits.
Haley will have an opportunity to make a fresh impression on primary voters next Wednesday at the first debate, but she has a lot of ground to cover.
She's not the only one: President Trump is dominating the field with a comfortable double-digit lead - overshadowing his closest rival Ron DeSantis, who has been slipping since a highly anticipated campaign launch.
A new poll from Morning Consult found Haley tied in fifth place with Tim Scott and Chris Christie at 3 percent - with Trump way ahead of the pack at 57 percent, and DeSantis at 16 percent.
Politically, Haley has stuck to a traditional Republican brand similar to that of Mike Pence - breaking with Trump's calls to pull back from Ukraine in its war with Russia.
Currently, the candidate who's getting all the buzz isn't Haley or DeSantis - but Vivek Ramaswamy, whose charisma and vocal defense of Trump have distinguished him from the pack.
Haley said she's used to being dismissed, but she insists that she's the only one who can do the job.
"That’s something that I hear all the time, and I’ll tell you that, look, we have a country to save, and I don’t trust anybody else to do it,” she said.
While Haley has emphasized her sex on the campaign trail, she says she's not interested in playing identity politics.
“I think that when I become the first female president, it won’t be because I’m a woman. It’ll be because … I’m the right person for the job.”
Given the likelihood that Trump will be the nominee, it appears unlikely Haley would be offered the role of VP anyway.
Her relationship with her former boss has soured since the end of the Trump presidency, and she has equivocated on whether Trump should be pardoned as he faces numerous criminal indictments - indictments that the vast majority of Republicans consider illegitimate.
