Former President Donald Trump is expected to trounce Nikki Haley in South Carolina’s Republican presidential primary Saturday, but the ex-United Nations ambassador insists it won’t be a knockout punch.

According to a polling average from FiveThirtyEight, Trump is leading his former Cabinet member 63.6% to 32.9% in the Palmetto State. She is the last major candidate standing between Trump and his third consecutive GOP nomination.

The former president soundly defeated Haley in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary. They competed in separate contests in Nevada -- Trump won the caucuses while voters in the state's primary picked "none of these candidates" over Haley.

Yet, Haley vowed Tuesday that she’s “not going anywhere” after the South Carolina primary. 

“I'm campaigning every day until the last person votes,” she said, arguing that too few voters have had an opportunity to cast their ballots.

The Trump campaign issued a memo this week saying Haley has no plausible path to securing the 1,215 delegates needed to win the nomination and predicting the “end is near” for her White House bid. Trump campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles called Haley a “wailing loser hell-bent on an alternative reality and refusing to come to grips with her imminent political mortality.”

A blowout loss Saturday would figure to be especially painful for Haley because it would come in her home state, where she served as governor for six years.

“Look, she’s not working,” Trump said during a Fox News town hall in Greenville, South Carolina, on Tuesday. “She’s here, she’s down by 30, 35 points, and everybody knows her. You’re not supposed to lose your home state. Shouldn’t happen anyway. And she’s losing it bigly.”

Haley, however, is pressing forward while stepping up her attacks on Trump and trying to make the case that she, not Trump, is the Republicans’ best hope to defeat Democratic President Joe Biden in November.

In a call with reporters Friday, Betsy Ankney, Haley’s campaign manager, cited a Marquette Law School poll that found Haley would beat Biden by 16 percentage points but Trump would beat him by 2 points, within the margin of error. Ankney also rattled off the lengthy list of Republican election defeats since, she said, the “luster wore off” of Trump following his 2016 victory.

“We know that the math is challenging,” Ankney said. “This has never just been about who can win a Republican primary. This battle is about who can win in November, defeat the Democrats and finally get our country back on track. And the reality is, no matter what all-caps rants Trump goes on on Twitter about the polls, he will not defeat Joe Biden in November, and he will drag the entire Republican ticket down with him.”

Haley has shown no signs she is on the verge of bowing out. This week, her campaign announced its leadership teams in Super Tuesday primary states Michigan and Texas, and Ankney announced Friday a seven-figure TV and digital ad buy leading up to Super Tuesday, which is March 5.

Haley and the super PAC supporting her had $15 million cash on hand at the end of January, according to Federal Election Commission.

The former South Carolina governor has been attacking Trump on a number of fronts, including his court trials, his comments that he would encourage Russia to attack NATO countries that do not meet their financial obligations and his refusal to condemn Russia for the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has been trying to paint Haley as someone who is weak on immigration and relations with China and who would raise taxes.

Republican strategist Rina Shah said it’s important for Haley to avoid an ugly blowout Saturday.

“The delta can't be so vast,” Shah said. “Because if it is, then it's almost like a repudiation of her candidacy.”

Shah added that Haley has “had her eye on the long game for months now” after receiving an influx of support from big-money donors and Americans for Prosperity Action, the political network founded by the influential billionaire Koch Brothers.

“She knows that's the name of the game is to not think about the here and now, to play the long game, to show people that she is the best, most electable Republican for the general election,” Shah said.

Trump’s campaign, Shah said, would likely use a victory Saturday to argue that if Haley cannot win on her home turf, she can’t win elsewhere. But Shah said that would ignore Haley’s appeal to moderate voters in swing states, a key demographic in the general election.

Fifty delegates are up for grabs in South Carolina. Twenty-nine will be awarded to the winner of the statewide vote while the rest will be allocated according to the vote in each of the state’s seven congressional districts.

The polls open at 7 a.m. local time and close at 7 p.m. 

Trump currently leads Haley in delegates 63-17.

The Democrats held their primary in South Carolina on Feb. 10, with Biden receiving 96% of the vote.