Pollster Mark Penn predicted that if former President Donald Trump chooses fellow Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley to be his vice president, he would lock up the election.
Mr. Penn, publisher of the Harvard CAPS/Harris poll, told Politico that Mr. Trump would do well to overcome his disdain for his former U.S. ambassador.
“Trump has a problem, which is the Nikki Haley voter. …A large percentage of them are never Trump,” he said. “Does Trump have a way of consolidating them? It seems to me that Trump almost has to pick her as vice president. … He could do her, or he could do Tim Scott.”
Mr. Penn said the former South Carolina governor would help him get votes from Republican women, “and that would be the end of the election.”
The former president has already said he won’t consider Ms. Haley for his second in command if she drops out of the race.
“She was OK, but she was not presidential timber,” he said at a rally last week in New Hampshire. “Now, when I say that, that probably means that she’s not going to be chosen as the vice president.”
Mr. Trump routed Ms. Haley in the Iowa caucuses before doing so again in the New Hampshire primary. The two will face off again in South Carolina on Feb. 24.