Nikki Haley racking up votes in primaries despite dropping out

Indian American Nikki Haley is posing a warning sign to former President and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump as she’s still going strong in the Republican primaries despite suspending her presidential campaign in March.

On Tuesday, Haley received 20% of the vote in Maryland, 17.9% in Nebraska and 9.4% in West Virginia. In the Indiana primary last week, Haley garnered 21.7% of the vote, USA Today reported.

While Trump handily won the states, receiving 80.2% of the vote in Nebraska, 80% in Maryland, 88.4% in West Virginia and 78.3% in Indiana, Haley’s sizable tally indicates Trump, still may face persistent opposition within his own party.

Haley built a broad coalition of voters, including moderate and anti-Trump Republicans, during her presidential run that cut into the former president’s commanding lead in the primary polls.

RAED: Nikki Haley drops out of Republican presidential primary (March 6, 2024)

As her now “zombie campaign” continues to receive support, Trump could be in danger if he doesn’t make an effort to reach out to the dissatisfied group in his GOP base who could reject him come the general election, the newspaper said citing political scientists and strategists. This was especially so in a race where a handful of swing states could be decided by tens of thousands of votes or less.

“Haley continuing to garner support after suspending her campaign may indicate that a significant number of normally loyal Republicans are not supportive of Trump,” Grant Reeher, professor of political science at Syracuse University, was cited as saying.

“Whether that means they will vote for Biden or another candidate in the general election is, again, hard to say, but it could indicate that some of them may not vote, given the options.  And this election is expected to be close, so even a small drop-off could hurt Trump, especially in the battleground states,”  he added.

Numerous polls show that Trump is leading Biden in key battleground states.

READ: Nikki Haley Joins Hudson Institute as Walter P. Stern Chair (April 17, 2024)

A recent New York Times/Siena College/The Philadelphia Inquirer poll conducted between April 28 and May 9 found Biden trailing Trump among registered voters in a head-to-head matchup by seven points in Arizona, 10 points in Georgia, seven points in Michigan, 12 points in Nevada and three points in Pennsylvania. The only state where Biden led Trump was Wisconsin by two points.

But getting a substantial amount of Haley voters to back him could help close the gap for Biden in the general election, especially in metro and suburban areas where their vote has been particularly strong, according to Wesley Leckrone, a political science expert at Widener University, as cited by USA Today.

“Should some of these voters support Biden in the fall it could make a difference in swing states,” he said.

For instance, Haley received 25% of the vote in Chester County, Pennsylvania, which Biden won in 2020, a month after she suspended her campaign. She also received 23% of the vote in Cobb County, Georgia, which Biden also won.

“I think much of the discontent among anti-Trump Republicans is more about his style of politics and personality. Views on Trump are pretty hardened at this point and he continues to use the same campaign style,” Leckrone was quoted as saying.

“It’s unlikely that will change in the coming months. Perhaps his choice of a vice president candidate could help bring moderates back into the fold, but it’s unlikely.”

Ford O’Connell, a Republican strategist who served as a Trump White House and campaign surrogate for the 2020 election, was cited as saying he thinks the biggest concern for Trump is to make sure irregular and infrequent voters who favor him turn out in battleground states rather than appealing to Haley voters.

“The best use of your time and resources is dedicating it to a ballot turnout operation in the six states that are going to decide this election. You know, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, Michigan Wisconsin, Pennsylvania,” he said.

Whether Haley voters will choose Biden in the general election or a third-party candidate is also up in the air, according to USA Today.

Biden has lost support from key groups, including young voters, Black voters and Hispanic voters, on issues such as his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict and the economy, the publication noted.

Aaron Kall, a politics expert at the University of Michigan, was cited as saying it’s up to Biden to make earning Haley voters a part of his winning strategy in the general election.