Even after her losses to frontrunner Donald Trump in GOP presidential primaries in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Nikki Haley has vowed to stay in the race. Haley's supporters are hoping that if her campaign hangs on long enough, Republicans will conclude that Trump's legal problems are insurmountable and turn to Haley as an alternative.
But Daily Beast opinion writer Eleanor Clift, in a column published on February 27, argues that even if Trump dropped out of the race, Haley would not be the nominee — as many MAGA Republicans view her as "a traitor to the cause."
Clift acknowledges that there is a strong conservative argument for nominating Haley, who polls very well against incumbent President Joe Biden in a hypothetical matchup and doesn't have Trump's legal baggage.
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"She's waging a valiant fight, keeping hope alive that Republican voters will realize Donald Trump is unfit for office and turn away from him before it is too late," Clift explains. "She deserves praise for sticking with her commitment to give voters who have not yet cast a GOP primary ballot an opportunity to have their voices heard. It's all well and good, even commendable, and it's based on a belief that 'buyer's remorse' will set in as Trump's legal woes mount."
Clift continues, "A number of polls show Nikki Haley, a scrappy fighter with appeal to moderates and independents, would be the stronger candidate against President Joe Biden in November. And the slice of Republicans supporting Haley spells danger for Trump, should they harden into Never Trumpers. Haley is the last exit ramp for GOP voters, but they won't take it."
The Daily Beast columnist emphasizes that the Republican National Convention is "owned by Trump and his loyalists, who already laid the groundwork for the convention under recently deposed RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel."
During a November 2023 appearance on MSNBC, former RNC Chairman Michael Steele — a Never Trump conservative who supported Biden in 2020 and is supporting him again in 2024 — argued that even though there is a strong conservative case for nominating Haley, MAGA voters won't warm up to her because she doesn't fill their thirst for "retribution."
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Similarly, Clift writes that even if Trump ended his campaign, Republicans would look for an ultra-MAGA candidate instead of nominating Haley.
"A year ago," Clift explains, "Republicans were looking for an alternative to Trump. It was not crazy to think they could move past him. If the dominoes had fallen differently, if (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis wasn't such a bust, if Attorney General Merrick Garland had moved quickly to prosecute Trump, or even if Haley had found her voice earlier in the process, we might be in another place. Now, there's no chance absent some cataclysmic event that the Republican Party will get rid of Trump — or Trumpism."
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Eleanor Clift's full Daily Beast column is available at this link (subscription required).
