Remember when Nikki Haley thought she would still be in the Republican presidential race at this point?
It was a quaint notion, really. Almost cute in a way. Long after other candidates with more public support dropped out to make room for former President Donald Trump. But not Nikki, the former governor of South Carolina and Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations.
She lost races that Donald Trump wasn’t even entered in — like the Nevada Republican primary, to “None of These Candidates.” She lost her home state, bigly. She lost pretty much everywhere in that manner except for the state of Vermont, which she won. Boy, hope the GOP can carry that momentum into the fall.
Months after the Republican primary process, for all intents and purposes, ended, the last woman standing confirmed what may be the least important position she’s taken this position: Yes, she’ll be voting for Trump.
“As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who’s going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border, no more excuses,” Haley said during an event at the conservative think tank the Hudson Institute in Washington on Wednesday.
“A president who would support capitalism and freedom, a president who understands we need less debt, not more debt. Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I’ve made that clear many, many times.
“But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump.”
I was asked today at @HudsonInstitute whether I would vote for Donald Trump or Joe Biden, here’s my answer: pic.twitter.com/fSgPCuz3do
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) May 22, 2024
And lo and behold — the media suddenly pretended Haley cared for a second, again!
NOW: @NikkiHaley says she will be voting for Donald Trump, during an event at the Hudson Institute.
— Weijia Jiang (@weijia) May 22, 2024
Nikki Haley says she will vote for Trump – via @lemondefr https://t.co/3elxYuW9Jf
— Bradley Dodd (@BradDodd) May 23, 2024
#ÉtatsUnis #Politique #DonaldTrump #NikkiHaley #Élection2024
Nikki Haley annonce qu’elle votera Donald Trump à la présidentielle mais le met en garde. https://t.co/ncoBtkZWIi
— Mermoz (@Mermoz718) May 23, 2024
Quelle horreur! And it’s not just les RINOs français who were still concerned about whom Haley was endorsing across the pond, either.
Here’s the BBC pretending her candidacy still mattered: “Anti-Trump Republican voters largely coalesced behind Ms. Haley’s presidential bid earlier this year, and her dormant candidacy is still picking up support more than two months after she left the race,” Britain’s state broadcaster reported. “She won more than 20% of the vote in at least two state primary elections over the past fortnight.”
Are you voting for Trump?
Yes, well, about that. Take North Carolina and Virginia, two states with May primaries where Haley fared well, scoring 23 and 35 percent of the vote. As the Daily Caller noted, exit polling from CNN showed that large swaths of the Haley vote in those two states “largely identified as ‘liberal/moderate’ or as Democrats and independents. The survey found many of them were first-time voters in a Republican primary and registered in order to hurt Trump’s chances of securing the nomination.”
The other people who pretended this was hot news were professional former Republicans who would wring their hands on cable news.
Take MSNBC commentator Nicolle Wallace, former Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger and Mark Sanford, former South Carolina governor and congressman — all former GOP operatives in some way, shape or form who have made their way in the media world by saying all the bad things journos can’t:
Nicolle Wallace on Nikki Haley endorsing Donald Trump: “We need shrinks and cult experts to explain this.” (Video: MSNBC) pic.twitter.com/UTbN5OZ6xS
— Mike Sington (@MikeSington) May 22, 2024
Former GOP Rep. @AdamKinzinger blasts Nikki Haley:
“She’s putting her career and her interests over the country.” pic.twitter.com/YLNlHBWk4s
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 23, 2024
Former SC Gov. @MarkSanford on why he’s not entirely surprised that Haley now says she’ll vote for Trump: “Ambition kills off a lot of things. What you have here is somebody obviously wanting to be relevant in 2028.” pic.twitter.com/7vApoERJgP
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) May 23, 2024
What a shocker. Again, like Haley, these are people whose only real relevance — for lack of a constituency that will elect them or a politician that will employ them — is in public opposition to the presumptive GOP nominee.
This is why Haley held off for as long as she did; even though she putatively dropped out of the race on March 6, she kept on pretending that Donald Trump and his contingent needed to earn her vote and court her voters. The difference is — as Sanford wisely pointed out — Haley has a chance to stay relevant if she can court both the Trump crowd and the anti-Trump crowd.
Of course, the more likely outcome in 2028 and in the years intervening is what happened in 2024: In trying to court both worlds, she’ll get neither.
