Only reason I can think of as to why she's still running
Polls say Trump would struggle against Biden where Nikki would have a much easier time, and frankly in Haley v Biden my money is on Haley. Putting Trump in prison would be good for democracy, but I am also seeing a trap card.
Haley leads Biden by 16-18 points when Trump leads by 2-4 in some polls. Looking at some of the others Biden leads by small margins, but most all of them Haley fares better than Trump.
I agree. She's gambling on Trump becoming disqualified so she can try and range her place. Just remember that she's not a moderate by any factual means, including her own stated alignment. She's only "moderate" cats Trump moved the bar so far into insanity land that now not being overtly fascist is enough on the right to qualify as "moderate."
Trump won't go to prison before the election. It would be seen, wrongly, as manipulating the election. There's enough idiots that would think this for it to be avoided. Just like how they courts are treating Trump with kids gloves.
Trump's legal troubles are exactly why a failed candidate will say they're "suspending" their campaign. Every leading candidate is a single bad day from falling out of the lead (like, plane crash or sudden jail term) and Haley and DeSantis are praying nightly that something finally sticks to Teflon Trump.
I feel like anybody who was an "anybody but Trump" voter, i.e.: anybody sane, would naturally turn into a "anybody but a Republican" voter post-trump. After all the fascism, and support they gave Trump it would be insane to see any Republican as more than scum.
So many anybody but Trump folks really are just turned off by how he's crass and rude. Mass deportations, destroying democracy, stripping the rights from minorities, and cozying up to dictators do not count as being crass or rude. Basically "can we please keep things professional, Adolf?"
I'm pretty sure there are lot of moderate conservatives that hate him
Many of them wouldn't vote for him as he seems pretty fascist. But I'm not sure the rest of the republican party is quite so insane if you remove him from the equation
I think in a Haley/Biden contest Biden still comes out on top.
About half of her supporters are never-trumpers. I'd bet that at least that many Trump supporters won't vote for her without any more outside influence. And I think there will be a lot more outside influence if Trump isn't the nominee in any scenario short of his death because he will poison the Republican voter base against her more that he already has.