RICHBURG — As Warren Norman, the son of U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, introduced Nikki Haley at a reelection campaign kickoff event for his father Monday night, he wasn't sure how to refer to her.

"Do I call you Ambassador Haley? Governor Haley?" he asked. "Future President Haley?"

The crowd of more than 1,000 South Carolina Republicans leapt into a roaring standing ovation.

"I think that speaks for itself," he said.

While Haley has personally played coy about her future ambitions, many Republican voters in her home state appear to have already made up their minds about what they want the former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations under President Donald Trump to do in four years.

Haley focused her remarks Monday night on her support for Norman, who won a special election in 2017 to replace Mick Mulvaney, now the acting White House chief of staff. Norman and Haley have been close allies since their days together in the South Carolina Statehouse.

"He's a conservative, but more than that he fights for you and he always has fought for you," Haley said of Norman, praising him for consistently standing with Trump and warning that he will need to be in Washington if a Democrat wins in 2020 — though, she added, "we don't want to think about that."

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But most others at the event, which had to be moved from Winthrop University to the Gateway Conference Center to accommodate a larger than expected crowd, seemed to have another election in mind.

"Ambassador Haley, whatever you decide to do in four years, whatever that is, let me give you a pledge," Norman said after Haley spoke: "We're going to fill this place three times over. We're going to lead the way in South Carolina for Ambassador Nikki Haley."

Forty miles north at the same time Monday night, Trump was speaking to a packed crowd in a close to 9,000-capacity arena in Charlotte. Haley's work in the Trump administration has further bolstered her reputation in a state where both she and Trump are popular figures among Republicans.

A full four years out from the next election, and just two days after South Carolina Democrats had finished their own 2020 primary, many voters at the kickoff said they are already praying Haley runs — and are confident those prayers will be answered.

"She's definitely going to run, there's no doubt in my mind," said Richard Tucker, a sales executive from Lake Wylie. "I think the entire state would turn out for her."

Even though many said they also like other potential Republican candidates, from U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz to Vice President Mike Pence to even Donald Trump Jr., they doubted any of them could even compete with Haley in the early-voting Palmetto State.

"I love Cruz, I love Pence," said Connie Agee, a retired state employee. "But this is Haley country."