Nikki Haley is facing a growing image problem: The more GOP primary voters get to know her and the more she attacks former President Donald Trump, the less they like her.
Ms. Haley, for much of last year, was viewed as one of the most likable candidates in the Republican presidential race. Things, however, have changed in the eyes of Republican primary voters now that the contest has boiled down to a head-to-head contest with Mr. Trump, who notched sizable wins in the Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary.
Mr. Trump also is poised to win the Nevada caucuses Thursday, adding to his lead in the chase for the delegates needed to win the party’s nomination and his overall air of inevitability.
Ms. Haley’s fading favorability is among the findings in an NBC News national poll that showed 34% of Republican primary voters hold a positive view of her, with 36% seeing her negatively.
The same survey in November showed Ms. Haley, the former South Carolina governor, riding high on the image front with 43% of GOP primary voters liking her and 17% not.
Before bowing out of the race, Mr. Trump’s other rivals faced similar challenges — namely once they turned their fire on the party’s de facto leader, many GOP voters turned on them.
Ms. Haley has been looking to strike a balance of pointing out what she sees as Mr. Trump’s shortcomings without alienating the party’s base.
She also has been courting moderate anti-Trump Republicans and independents in the hopes of building a winning primary coalition.
The strategy didn’t pan out in the opening contests, but she hopes it will lead to a stronger showing in the Feb. 24 South Carolina primary.
“There are a lot of people who are looking at his as a binary choice now who maybe are not voters who have traditionally participated in Republican primaries, but who are conservative, who are independent and who do want a better option, and those are people who will be supporting of Nikki Haley,” Haley campaign manager Betsy Ankney told reporters this week. “So, that is fertile ground for us.”
Ms. Ankney drove home her point by highlighting how just 750,000 of the 3.3 million registered voters in South Carolina turned out for the primary in 2016.
“It does not mean we are courting Democrats,” she said.
Some polls have shown Ms. Haley would have broader appeal than Mr. Trump against President Biden, but it’s a far different story in the primary where the former president remains king.
The NBC News poll, conducted Jan. 26-30, included 1,000 registered voters and carried a 3.1% margin of error. The findings over the 349 Republican primary voters surveyed had a 5.25% margin of error.