Trump writes off Haley, supporters
Whether candidate’s lack of courting will matter still unknown
When Nikki Haley dropped out of the 2024 presidential race in early March, she withheld endorsing Donald Trump and extended a pointed invitation for him to court her and the political coalition she constructed. “This is now his time for choosing,” she said then.
It has been nearly three weeks. He has not called.
There has never been very much magnanimity in the MAGA movement.
But as Trump prepares for a rematch against President Joe Biden that is expected to offer little margin for error — the last race was decided by fewer than 50,000 votes across three states — the question is whether Trump’s decision to bypass any sort of reconciliation with Haley after a brutal and personal primary will matter.
Even out of the race, Haley has continued to pull in a significant number of voters in primary contests. Across the five swing states that have held primaries — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, North Carolina and Nevada — a total of about 750,000 people cast ballots for Haley.
Those five states were decided by about 250,000 votes combined in the 2020 general election.
Some of Haley’s votes have come from supporters who cast their ballots before she exited the race. But the votes she has drawn are from some of the most critical demographic and geographic swing blocs in the nation.
“I think I speak for many people in that we’re extremely frustrated that we have Biden and Trump to pick from,” said Irma Fralic, a co-chair of Women for Nikki who lives in the swing state of Pennsylvania and who is undecided about whom to vote for in November. “The risk for Donald Trump would be that people would not vote because they’re not happy.”
By some measures, about half of Haley voters have said they will back Biden in November. In North Carolina, exit polling showed that4 in 5 Haley supporters would not commit to voting for the Republican nominee. What is less clear is whether these are antiTrump Democrats casting ballots in the Republican primary or dissident Republicans the party will need to bring back into the fold.
While Trump has not reached out to the former South Carolina governor, he has reflected some of the same concerns she aired about her party’s handling of abortion. Trump’s caution on the issue has come even though he has bragged about appointing the judges who led to the end of federal abortion rights.
The Biden team sees an opening to exploit, and it has begun testing the effectiveness of different messages to determine how to sway disenchanted Haley supporters to their side, according to two people familiar with the matter.
But bypassing niceties after crushing Republican rivals is one of many political norms Trump has exploded. Even his own vice president’s recent rejection merited little more than a dismissive wave. “I couldn’t care less,” Trump said.
Trump’s advisers have said his speedy march to the nomination by landslide margins has left the party unusually unified this early after a contested primary, and they are not treating Haley as a leader with a loyal following in need of courtship.
“Our doors are always open for anyone who wants to join Donald Trump,” said Chris LaCivita, a top Trump adviser. “Our outreach is based off of the contrasts between President Trump and Joe Biden, and on the issues.”
Dave Carney, a Republican strategist in New Hampshire, said the idea that securing Haley’s support would unlock her coalition is an outdated way of looking at American politics.
“In the olden days,” Carney said, “you would cut a deal — you would be secretary of state and you campaign for me and bring all your people. Those days are long gone.”
Now, American politics have become increasingly tribal, and the pressures for even dissatisfied Republicans to not oppose Trump in November are significant.
“They’re not Haley voters,” Carney said of Haley’s primary voters. “They’re voters who voted for Haley.”
Still, at times, the Trump operation has seemed to actively push away Haley’s supporters. In January, Trump threatened that donors who gave to Haley would be “permanently barred from the MAGA camp.” The result was one of Haley’s strongest fundraising days.
The morning after Super Tuesday, LaCivita, a decorated combat veteran, posted an image from a famous scene in “Apocalypse Now,” when Robert Duvall’s character declares: “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.” It communicated perhaps more than LaCivita intended.
Here was a landscape burned, flattened and wasted after a war.
The Biden campaign, in contrast, issued a statement from the president welcoming Haley supporters. “There is a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said.
Now, senior Biden officials said they are in near daily conversations with Haley’s financial supporters.
Jeffrey Katzenberg, a Hollywood mogul who is a co-chair of the Biden campaign, said Trump is “chasing people away from his own party.” He views his job as working to “put the red carpet out and welcome them in.”