Now that former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is officially ending her bid for the Republican presidential nomination, some millions of voters have a decision to make. Much of their opposition to Donald Trump has been largely about the former president’s fitness, not his policies. Haley gave voice to these reservations, accusing Trump of igniting national chaos, questioning his age and bluntly warning that the nation could not survive a second Trump presidency. She declared Trump mean, unstable, unhinged and offensive. She called his false election 2020 conspiracies those of a loser; denounced his “disgusting” comments on race; and accused him of preferring Vladimir Putin over our allies in freedom.
Trump has vanquished Haley handily, defeating her in every state where she contested the former president.
Now Trump has vanquished Haley handily, defeating her in almost every state where she contested the former president. Certainly, he expects to unite the Republican Party behind his all-but-assured November rematch with President Joe Biden. But Haley’s defeat has not suddenly made Trump any more fit to serve, nor does her still likely (but not apparently imminent) endorsement of the twice-impeached former president who faces a criminal indictment for conspiring to defraud the electorate of its previous presidential vote.
So what does a Haley voter do in November?
Haley herself routinely equivocated on the campaign trail, gratuitously calling Biden more dangerous than Trump. Her accusations against Biden, however, never seriously cast him as an existential threat to American democracy. She challenged Biden instead on his age and competency, awkwardly painting his policies on issues such as immigration and taxes as failures. And yet Haley’s reservations about Biden’s politics always paled in comparison to her vicious, existential charges against Trump — and her voters understand that.
So do Haley voters indeed turn to Biden? Polls remain mixed. Some…
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