That's the resounding sentiment from women who spoke to Reuters at a rally in New Hampshire for Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley.
After Florida Governor Ron DeSantis exited the race on Sunday, Haley stands as the last Republican challenger to former president Donald Trump.
New Hampshire will hold its primary contest Tuesday, and will be a major test of whether Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations envoy, will be able to remain in the race .
Her supporters here told Reuters they see her not just as an important symbol...
"standing up for people, being a great listener... I think that that means a lot to us as professional women, but also to our children."
... but as an alternative to either Democratic President Joe Biden or Trump.
"It was very disheartening in 2020 on that the choice that we have, after all the millions of people that we have in this country, and those were our options."
Julie Avant is a certified public accountant in the state:
"...I think we need some youth, we need some vitality, and we need some common sense and some moderation. And I don't see that from either of these, those other candidates. There's too much polarization. I want people coming together and I have hope for that with Nikki."
Typically, more women than men attend Haley's small-scale rallies. They like her deep resume, her tough national-security stance and the fact that she's a woman. And they really like that she is not Donald Trump.
Sandie Crosson: "We've never had a woman president and she's we've heard her speak and she's wonderful. She represents everything I'm looking for in a president."
The hopes of Haley's passionate cohort may be short-lived though, as polls show Trump to be heavily favored in Tuesday's primary.
At a rally on Sunday Trump boasted about his commanding lead over Haley.
"She's doing really poorly. She's losing by a lot."
Haley has tried to draw a distinction in recent days between herself and Trump, pointing out his mounting legal challenges
HALEY: "Chaos follows him."
Underscoring her point, the former president spent the last week in a Manhattan courtroom as a defendant in a civil defamation case involving a writer, E. Jean Carroll, who claims Trump assaulted her.
Trump is well-known for denigrating and misogynistic comments toward women, and has been accused numerous times of sexual misconduct, which he denies.
Meanwhile, Haley needs to keep the race in New Hampshire close to have a rationale for going forward, although she is expected to press on to her home state of South Carolina for its Feb. 24 primary regardless.
