And then there was one.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ withdrawal from the GOP presidential race Sunday placed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the kind of one-on-one match-up with Donald Trump that his Republican opponents have been thirsting for since the 2016 primary race. But even that looks unlikely to slow the former president’s march to his third consecutive GOP nomination.
DeSantis’ support in New Hampshire and South Carolina – the most important next states on the calendar – had dwindled to the point where his exit isn’t likely to significantly change the balance between Trump and Haley in those contests.
The real impact of DeSantis’ decision to quit may be that his endorsement of Trump – whom he had criticized with growing ferocity in the past few weeks – may reinforce the signal that almost all of the GOP leadership wants to wrap up the race so the party can focus on the general election against President Joe Biden. That message has already been sent by the quickening procession of GOP senators and governors who have endorsed Trump in the past few weeks.
If Haley doesn’t win New Hampshire, the chorus of Republicans demanding that she concede to Trump may grow deafening. The dynamic is reminiscent of the rapid coalescing behind Biden in the 2020 Democratic race, which abruptly ended the contest just days after he recovered from dismal showings in Iowa and New Hampshire to win the South Carolina primary.
The DeSantis and Haley camps each believed they would benefit if the other left the field and created an unambiguous one-on-one race with Trump. That, of course, was the dream of Trump’s opponents in the 2016 contest.
If that winnowing had occurred early in the 2016 race, it might have been a problem for Trump at a time when he could not expand his support beyond about 40% of the party. But it’s far less clear…
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