All three remaining major candidates for president could, to some degree, benefit from Nikki Haley’s exit.
Now that the final major GOP challenger, Nikki Haley, has suspended her presidential run, the three remaining major candidates are vying for her voters.
Around the time that Ms. Haley announced her departure from the 2024 race on March 6, the Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, and the Democrat incumbent, President Joe Biden, each made a public statement welcoming Ms. Haley’s supporters to change their allegiance.
All three major candidates will benefit in some measure from Ms. Haley’s departure from the race, as hurdles loom for each of them.
Citing the network’s research in multiple Super Tuesday states, ABC News reported, “Super Tuesday exit poll results showed challenges for Joe Biden and Donald Trump alike, including broad, substantive gaps between Trump and Nikki Haley voters.”
Leaning Left?
At least half of Ms. Haley’s voters in Virginia and North Carolina “said they approve of Biden’s work as president, as did 30 percent in California,” ABC said, suggesting that those voters would lean toward casting ballots for President Biden rather than President Trump.
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Even so, pollster Rich Baris told The Epoch Times he doubted the Haley voting bloc would exert much influence over the race’s outcome.
“Haley’s primary vote is largely made up of ’resistance’ voters and a rather small percentage of Republican voters who would’ve rather had a different choice than the former president,” he said. “The latter will come home and unify behind the Republican nominee. The former will do what they told exit pollsters: support the Democrat as they did in 2020.”
He also made this key point: “The general election polling data suggest Trump doesn’t need to do much to snare voters who didn’t vote for him in the primary.”
Entreaties to Haley’s Fans
Just after his near-sweep of the March 5 Super Tuesday contests, winning 14 out of 15 states, President Trump posted on Truth Social that he wanted “to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our nation.”
But, in that same March 6 statement, President Trump also said he “trounced” Ms. Haley and said he hoped she would continue her campaign, implying he wanted to continue to beat her.
President Biden directed a message to Ms. Haley’s voters, saying, “I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign … I hope and believe we can find common ground.”
Chaos?
The incumbent president is getting help from organizations that oppose President Trump. A group called “Primary Pivot,” which recruited independents and Democrats to vote for Ms. Haley in Republican primaries, has relaunched as “Haley Voters for Biden.”
During her speech announcing she was leaving the race, Ms. Haley said: “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party–and beyond it–who did not support him. And I hope he does that.”
When asked what messages President Trump might deliver to woo Ms. Haley’s voters, Jason Meister, a New York-based advisory board member for President Trump, told The Epoch Times: “I think it’s less about the messaging and more about the actions.”
He thinks that Ms. Haley’s voters, which included many moderate Democrats and independents, “now have a very clear picture of life under Donald Trump and life under Joe Biden.”
“They may not like the mean tweets” that President Trump used to post on Twitter during his presidency, Mr. Meister said. “They may not like the brashness of the candidate. But did they like life better under Donald Trump?”
Mr. Meister asserts that most people would agree that President Trump’s presidency ushered in a robust economy, peace in the Middle East, and a secure southern border, among other benefits.
He disagreed with Ms. Haley’s characterization that President Trump was associated with “chaos.” That statement represents “a lack of understanding of the political landscape,” Mr. Meister said.
“It’s the left that’s bringing about the chaos, and it’s the left-leaning media that’s created a straw man that is not Donald Trump,” he explained.
Regardless of which candidate would become the Republican frontrunner or nominee, “whether it was [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley or Donald Trump, there was always going to be ‘chaos,’” Mr. Meister said. “I can promise you that. Because anyone who opposes the left or challenges the swamp, they are subjected to chaos.”
Mr. Meister added, “Donald Trump is the greatest fighter against that energy, that force. To say he is the chaos is wrong.”
The Associated Press contributed.
Original News Source Link – Epoch Times
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