Trump back in Texas as new rival ascends
Former President Donald Trump, who was back in Texas on Thursday, retains a dominant grip on the GOP primary race but has a new top rival ascending in the polls and drawing more of his attention.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, while still far behind Trump, has risen to second place in early voting states like New Hampshire and Iowa. And she has brandished some surprising Republican fundraising chops in Texas. Haley has outraised Trump in Houston, Dallas, Austin and Midland, though Trump has outraised her in Texas overall. On Thursday, Trump had scheduled a campaign stop and fundraiser in Houston.
The former president has begun to take notice. On Wednesday his presidential campaign sent statements to the media calling Haley names, and just last weekend he called her “a highly overrated person” at a rally in Sioux City, Iowa.
Up until now, Trump has largely focused his fire on Florida Gov. Ron Desantis, who had appeared to be his top rival for most of the last six months. But as the Desantis campaign has staggered, it’s Haley who has emerged and is getting more aggressive in challenging Trump directly.
Last weekend, Haley had her sharpest criticism of Trump yet, blasting his past praise of authoritarian rulers and warning his style of “chaos, vendettas and drama” would be dangerous if he became president again.
“Eight years ago, it was good to have a leader who broke things,” Haley said of Trump during a speech at the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual meeting in Las Vegas. “But right now, we need to have a leader who also knows how to put things back together.”
There’s no doubt Haley is picking up some momentum with just over 70 days until the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses get underway, said Larry Sabato, the director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. But Sabato said she faces major hurdles if she’s going to actually dethrone Trump.
“She’s so far behind that a lot of things would have to happen that we don’t see happening yet,” he said.
Other candidates would have to start dropping out and endorsing Haley, for one. Or if Trump’s legal problems worsen or his numbers against Biden crater, it could open a pathway for Haley.
Trump is facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases in Washington, New York, Florida and Georgia. He has pleaded not guilty on each of them.
Still, Haley’s campaign is touting their new momentum built largely on early state polling in Iowa and in New Hampshire. Last month, a New Hampshire poll showed Haley overtaking Desantis for second place, drawing 19 % of the hypothetical vote, but still 30 percentage points behind Trump.
In Iowa, an NBC News/des Moines Register poll released last weekend showed Haley tied with Desantis for second place at 16%, with Trump a full 27 percentage points ahead of them.
In a statement, Haley’s campaign said “the presidential race is now a two-person race between one man and one woman.”
As for the Texas primary on March 5, Trump is commanding a sturdy lead. A new poll released this week by the University of Houston and Texas Southern University showed 58% of about 500 potential GOP primary voters backing the former president. Just 14% said they would vote for Desantis and 6% for Haley.
Trump sought to add to that advantage with his first public campaign event in Texas since March, when he held a rally in Waco. The campaign stop and a private fundraiser in Houston followed a Wednesday fundraiser in Dallas.
Haley and Desantis also have been fundraising in Texas. While the state’s primary is not one of the first four contests, candidates lean on its wealthy donors to fuel their bids in other early states.
Overall, Trump raised $5 million in Texas through Sept. 30, according to the last Federal Election Commission records. Desantis raised $3.2 million and Haley $2.6 million.
Haley has outraised Trump in key cities like Houston, bringing in $500,000 to his $380,000. In Dallas, it has been similar, with Haley raising over $660,000 compared with just under $300,000 for Trump.