Donald Trump will be the Republican candidate for the White House. And yet, his former rival Nikki Haley continues to collect a notable number of votes in certain primaries, illustrating the refusal of moderate voters to rally behind the billionaire’s candidacy.
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It doesn’t matter that the fifty-year-old threw in the towel more than two months ago and disappeared from television screens. It still appears on the ballots used, state after state, to designate the candidate who will be inducted in July at the party convention.
The former American ambassador to the UN again received more than 20% of the vote against Donald Trump during the Republican primaries in Indiana on Tuesday.
150,000 votes in Pennsylvania, 110,000 in Arizona… Since she suspended her campaign at the beginning of March, the Republican has siphoned precious votes from the tempestuous septuagenarian during each primary – revealing one of the greatest vulnerabilities of Donald Trump.
If the former president is ultra-popular with his base, a sea of red caps who continue to flock to his meetings despite his indictments, his rating is much more fragile among moderate Republicans.
“Deserve the votes”
Holding outright conservative positions on the market economy, crime and morals, Nikki Haley has attracted many centrist or independent voters by banking on the desire for political renewal.
By stopping her race for the White House, she gave no voting instructions to her troops. The ex-candidate simply indicated that it was up to the former real estate mogul to “deserve the votes” she obtained.
Donald Trump, who recently mocked Nikki Haley’s “sparrow brain” and made fun of her husband, has not yet really explained how he intended to seduce the supporters of his ex-rival.
“All his voters will rally around me,” he assured, confidently, during an interview on local television in Pennsylvania.
Democratic President Joe Biden, himself faced with a revolt from pro-Palestinian voters, has already reached out to voters of the former Republican candidate.
“There is a place for Nikki Haley supporters in my campaign,” he said in early March.
Before broadcasting, a few weeks later, an advertising spot with a very explicit message: “Donald Trump does not want your vote.”
“Didn’t see it coming”
Can Joe Biden’s strategy bear fruit?
“There is a lot of talk about the fact that Joe Biden’s candidacy is threatened by his support for Israel, but we don’t talk enough about the contempt that Trump arouses among a large number of Republicans,” said Donald Nieman, a political analyst at the University of Binghamton.
“This aversion – or perhaps we can speak of disgust – for Trump and his escapades did a lot of harm to Republicans during the 2022 midterm elections,” he adds. For the expert, the Republicans’ disenchantment with Donald Trump is “the story we didn’t see coming.”
Several voters of the former governor of South Carolina, contacted by AFP, have already declared that they would not support the Republican’s new candidacy.
However, if the Republican’s candidacy shows some flaws, the former president is leading most polls against Joe Biden in the most decisive states for the presidential election.
Nicholas Higgins, professor of political science at North Greenville University in South Carolina, also calls for not overinterpreting the results of the Indiana primary, in which voters, who were not aligned with the Republicans, could participate.
“We will start to see more clearly over the next two weeks, when Maryland and Kentucky organize their own primaries, for Republican voters,” he analyzes.
“If Haley continues to get 15 to 20% of the vote in these states,” warns the expert, “then Trump has a problem with Republican voters.”
