With her candidacy on the line, Haley takes on Trump in New Hampshire

HAMPTON, N.H. — A newly emboldened Nikki Haley is taking former President Donald Trump to task in New Hampshire with the future of her presidential campaign on the line.

Haley has exchanged barbs with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for attacks on Trump as she races to cut down the GOP frontrunner's lead in the first-in-the-nation primary state. The former South Carolina governor is trailing Trump by 17 points with just four days left to convince New Hampshire residents of her potential.

New Hampshire is holding the second contest of the cycle on Jan. 23. The state is considered a must-win for Haley, who came in third in Iowa and is skipping Nevada's caucus in early February and jumping ahead to her home state of South Carolina.

Appearing on Fox News on Friday morning from Kay's Cafe & Bakery in Hampton, Haley refuted charges from Trump and his allies that she is relying on Democrats to win the state of New Hampshire and defended her record as a Tea Party governor and a conservative.

"What have I not done that wasn't conservative? I've been a conservative all my life. Find one thing. No one can mention one thing that says I'm not a conservative," she said. "But the fact that Donald Trump's lying, it's another reason why he won't debate me, because he knows I'll call him out on it."

While registered Democrats can't vote in the New Hampshire primary, some voters dropped their party affiliation before an October deadline. These independents, or "undeclared" voters as they're called in the Granite State, can choose to pick up either a Democratic or Republican ballot Tuesday.

"This is not a matter of a stolen election. This is a matter of people could change their registration months ago before they knew what this slate was, but now, it is what it is," Haley said.

Trump has been assailing Haley on social media, claiming in one post that she gave a "wacked out speech" after her defeat in Iowa. He misspelled her given first name, Nimarata, in the post, referring to her as "Nimrada," in an apparent attempt to turn her Indian-American heritage into a cudgel. He has also spread misinformation about Haley's eligibility to run for president, because her parents were immigrants, even though she was born in the United States.

"I am the proud daughter of Bamberg, South Carolina, so I love my sweet town and I'm proud to say I'm from there. So that's the first question. We can throw that out the window," Haley said during a CNN townhall on Thursday evening.

Haley declined to describe Trump's attacks against her as racist when directly asked after an afternoon stop at MaryAnn's diner in Amherst.

"I'll let people decide what he means by his attacks," she said. "He's clearly insecure. If he goes and does these temper tantrums, if he's going and spending millions of dollars on TV, he's probably notice that something's wrong. I don't sit there and worry about whether it's personal or what he means."

Haley generally has sought to keep the race from becoming personal and has limited her assault on Trump to policy issues.

"I'm going to be hard on China, and he wasn't hard on China. He praised President Xi a dozen times after China gave us Covid. There are multiple instances that we need to start asking Donald Trump the questions and stop taking what he's saying to be golden," Haley said on Friday.

Trump took Thursday off to attend his mother-in-law's funeral in Florida. He will hold a series of rallies in New Hampshire over the weekend, beginning with an event Friday night in Concord.

Haley has been barnstorming New Hampshire and made two early morning stops on Friday, in addition to the afternoon diner visit. The first was a coffee shop in Newfields that is a regular haunt of Gov. Chris Sununu, who has endorsed Haley and has been campaigning alongside her since she returned to the state last Tuesday. Haley will end the day at a rally in Manchester.

DeSantis is pulling back from New Hampshire to campaign in South Carolina in a last-ditch effort to regain momentum heading into Super Tuesday. He spent Thursday in Florida and held events in New Hampshire on Friday. He plans to campaign in South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: With her candidacy on the line, Haley takes on Trump in New Hampshire