Just in case you thought former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley isn't running a futile protest campaign at this point, consider her first major endorsement from a sitting GOP senator. And her second, for that matter.
Keep in mind that this came after front-runner Donald Trump had picked up 32 Senate endorsements, according to The Hill \-- the vast majority of the party's 49 sitting members in the upper chamber. In fact, both Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota received two Senate endorsements before Haley even got one.
Then, on Friday night, she got two. That's the good news.
The bad news: The first was from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a RINO so huge you usually only see her type on safari. Following right up on her tail: Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a sort of Murkowski Lite who happens to be a bit closer to the Republican mainstream the way Maine happens to be closer to the heartland of the continental U.S. than Alaska is -- which is to say, just barely.
First, Murkowski: “I’m proud to endorse Gov. Nikki Haley,” she said in a Friday statement, according to the Daily Caller.
“America needs someone with the right values, vigor, and judgment to serve as our next President — and in this race, there is no one better than her. Nikki will be a strong leader and uphold the ideals of the Republican Party while serving as a President for all Americans," she added.
Then came the announcement that Sen. Collins was also endorsing Haley ... in an interview with the Bangor Daily News, which -- no offense to the paper of record for the city of Bangor, the third most-populous jurisdiction in the 43rd most-populous state in the nation -- isn't really where you go when you want to get the word out to the world that you're on Team Haley and you think it's a horse you're going to ride to victory.
“She has the energy, intellect, and temperament that we need to lead our country in these very tumultuous times,” Collins told the paper, which noted the senator "has a complex relationship with Maine’s Republican base," including several county party committees censuring her for voting to convict Donald Trump in his second impeachment.
Neither supported Trump during his 2016 run, it must be noted, with Collins saying she would refuse to support him after he became the presumptive nominee and Murkowski ditching him after the "Access Hollywood" tape affair.
I cannot and will not support Donald Trump for president. He has forfeited the right to be our party’s nominee.
— Lisa Murkowski (@LisaForSenate) October 8, 2016
Neither was particularly forthcoming with support in 2020, either, with Collins being cagey about how she would vote and Murkowski saying she was "struggling with it" during the summer.
Neither was likely to be on the Trump Train this time around -- although it's rather curious that both decided to endorse Haley on the Friday before Super Tuesday, when both their home states vote. In other words, no real time to campaign, no real effort, no real investment, not even a statement on the official X social media accounts of either senator.
Haley, meanwhile, responded by saying that Murkowski "represents the best of Alaska," according to NBC News.
"As president, I will fight to make Alaskans -- and all Americans -- proud by restoring fiscal sanity, energy dominance, and limited government," she added.
As for Collins, her announcement came late enough on Friday that Haley's campaign could simply acknowledge that it, you know, existed.
Two strong senators in one day. I’m grateful to have their support. Thank you Sens. @senatorcollins and @lisamurkowski. We have a country to save! https://t.co/rnWn4ih8tH
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) March 2, 2024
Not that this will necessarily do any good. In Maine, the two polls taken in February had Trump up by 42 and 58 points over Haley, respectively, according to RealClearPolitics. Alaska, meanwhile, has not been polled -- and why even bother?
Consider this: For the entire month of February, which is to say the one month where Trump and Haley have been going head-to-head, not one poll collected by wonk shrine FiveThirtyEight has Haley up -- anywhere. Not nationally, not in an individual state, not even close.
Perhaps it's for the best for everyone, then, that Murkowski and Collins decided to quietly announce this on a Friday evening just before the Super Tuesday race. Murkowski was censured by the Alaskan Republican Party for her role in voting to convict Donald Trump and had to rely on Alaska's ranked-choice voting system to win a tough 2022 re-election battle against a Trump-backed Republican. Collins, as previously mentioned, faced censure at the county party level for her vote to convict Trump.
Neither planned a long and vigorous campaign to at least win Haley one state to justify her staying in this race as anything more than a thinner, Y-chromosomeless Chris Christie. Nor is it likely that it would have worked. Nobody's opinion changed by having two of the party's biggest RINOs throw their support behind someone who's become nothing more than a protest vote against Donald Trump.
Not only is it all unsurprising, it's all wholly inadequate. At this point, if Nikki Haley wants to burn other people's money and other politicians' reputations, she can do so all she wants, but nobody should be doing it under the misapprehension she's doing it to win.
