Haley seeks votes without alienating Trump voters
Her best shot rests with attracting New Hampshire’s independents
CONCORD, N.H. — Richard Anderson drove through a snowstorm last week to see his preferred candidate in New Hampshire’s Republican primary. But he’s not sure how far he’ll go to support her if she wins the nomination.
Anderson, a 73-year-old independent voter from Jackson, liked what he heard from Nikki Haley at the Mount Washington Hotel. But he disagrees with the former U.N. ambassador’s plan to pardon former President Donald Trump if he is convicted of any of the crimes he’s been charged with.
“That bothers me,” he said. “I’ll still vote for her in the primary, but I’ll wait to see if she’s still saying that in the general election.”
Haley’s best shot at shaking Trump’s grip on the Republican nomination rests with her ability to attract New Hampshire’s independent voters — including some who might not stick with her in November — without alienating too many conservatives. Other Republicans have hit the right balance here, notably John McCain in two GOP primary victories. But those wins came long before Trump’s rise in politics and the Republicans’ rightward shifts both in the state and nationally.
“It’s a very difficult needle to thread,” said Nathan Shrader, an associate professor of politics at New England College, “because if she makes too much of an overt play for the independent voters, that could be a turnoff for some of the Republicans who we know in the Trump era are more conservative than they might have been a generation ago.”
Democrats can’t vote in the GOP primary, but voters unaffiliated with a party — who make up nearly 40% of registered voters in New Hampshire — can. That makes them a key target, though they aren’t a monolith.
A CNN/University of New Hampshire poll released Sunday found that a majority of registered Republicans likely to vote in the primary — 67% — said they planned to vote for Trump. But a majority of those registered as undeclared — 58% — said they support Haley.
The poll, taken Tuesday through Friday, also found more registered Republicans in the state view Haley unfavorably (47%) than favorably (31%). Trump, meanwhile is viewed favorably by 76% of registered Republicans and unfavorably by just 16%.