As Michigan Votes, Haley Slams Trump in Colorado and Presses Party Officials

As voting was underway in Michigan, Nikki Haley was delivering her closing pitch to voters further west in Colorado, which votes next week on Super Tuesday.

Speaking to hundreds of supporters packed into aircraft hangar near Denver on Tuesday, Ms. Haley once more urged Republicans to abandon former President Donald J. Trump, calling him a self-involved and unstable leader who could not win in November.

The Republican National Committee should not be covering his legal fees, she said, another point she makes often. But this time, she sought to add pressure on committee members — even if it was somewhat theoretical.

“If there is a resolution on whether the R.N.C. funds are going to pay for legal fees, we deserve to see how every national committee member votes,” said Ms. Haley said, flanked by military planes at the rally in Centennial, Colo.

Ms. Haley did not take questions from reporters afterward.

Following a streak of losses in her quest for the 2024 Republican nomination, including in South Carolina, her own home turf, Ms. Haley has cranked up her attacks on Mr. Trump and his transformation of the Republican Party. The stop near Denver was part of a national campaign swing that included a stop in Michigan on Sunday; she has stops planned in several other Super Tuesday states before that delegate-rich Primary Day on March 5.

In stops before cheering crowds at diverse suburbs in Michigan and Minnesota on Monday, Ms. Haley argued the former president is turning the Republican Party into his own personal “playpen.” She played up her argument that her ability to draw roughly 40 percent of the vote in South Carolina and New Hampshire showed Mr. Trump’s vulnerability.

“Donald Trump’s not watching out for the Republican Party,” she said during a stop in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Monday. “He’s not watching out for America. He’s watching out for himself.”

Ms. Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and a United Nations ambassador under Mr. Trump, has been continually scrambling for traction. Her campaign officials on Tuesday sought to temper expectations for her in Michigan, saying Mr. Trump had been campaigning in the state much longer than Ms. Haley, who held her first events there in recent days.

Super Tuesday could be crucial for Ms. Haley, but polls show her lagging far behind Mr. Trump in those states and nationally. She received another blow on Sunday, when Americans for Prosperity Action, the political network created by the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers, suspended its spending on her presidential bid.

Ms. Haley has sought to play down the significance of that decision, saying her campaign was “never financially dependent” on the group.

“They’re a great organization that believes in freedom and smaller government, and I appreciate the partnership,” she said. “But that wasn’t something we were focused on for money.”