The race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump is starting to look like a nail biter. Anything could tip the scales one way or another.
And now Trump got hit with the worst news that is throwing 2024 into total mayhem.
Trump’s claim to the nomination is incontrovertible.
He will be the Republican nominee whether RINOs or Democrats like it or not.
But after defeating Nikki Haley, she refused to endorse him for president, and many of her supporters are threatening to protest the vote.
The strength of support for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley in Pennsylvania’s presidential primary calls into question Republican nominee Donald Trump’s status inside his own party.
She pulled out of the contest more than a month ago, yet more than 155,000 Pennsylvania Republicans supported her over the former president.
However, it also provides an opening for Trump’s challenger, President Joe Biden.
He has worked to attract those people as part of his reelection campaign, but that effort may be especially beneficial in Pennsylvania, a swing state that he won by just over 80,000 votes in 2020, or 1 percentage point.
The result of Pennsylvania’s closed Republican primary on Tuesday, in which Haley earned 17% of the vote, was not an outlier.
The former South Carolina governor received 13% of the vote in Wisconsin last month, following 18% in Arizona, 13% in Georgia, and 14% in Florida the week after Super Tuesday.
She easily lost to Trump, halting her campaign after Super Tuesday, but she illustrated what might be a long-term issue for the former president with centrists and suburban voters.
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and I hope he does that,” Haley told a small crowd in Charleston during her concession speech. “This is now his time for choosing.”
The comment was in reference to Trump dismissing the significance of Haley voters during the primaries, stating, “I’m not sure we need too many.” He reportedly threatened Haley donors with exile if they sent her money. “We don’t want them and will not accept them.”
The Biden team has seized on these and other comments, seeing an opportunity to gain traction with Republican-leaning independents.
“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” Biden said in a post-Super Tuesday statement. “I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign.”
Two weeks later, the campaign spent seven figures on a three-week digital ad campaign in which Biden appealed directly to Haley supporters.
His team focused on eight states after analyzing Republican primary results to decide its placement on Meta, YouTube, linked TV, and internet video.
Biden has taken that strategy to battleground states like Pennsylvania, where he is virtually tied with the former president in recent polling.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
