Some Democrats Plan to Vote for Haley in South Carolina Primary

Some Democrats plan to vote for Nikki Haley in an effort defeat President Trump’s nomination, but the effort is unlikely to be successful, leaders say.

Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s supporters at a campaign event in Hilton Head Island, S.C., on Feb. 1, 2024. Madalina Vasiliu/The Epoch Times

COLUMBIA, S.C.—Democratic leaders in the state are urging their party’s voters to turn out for their historic first-in-the-nation primary rather than waiting three weeks to cast their ballots for Nikki Haley in an effort to defeat Donald Trump in the Republican nominating contest.

“I hear that a lot, especially from white suburban women,” Valerie Moore, chair of the Richland County Democratic Party, told The Epoch Times. “It’s very hard to talk people out of that.”

Even so, both Democratic and Republican leaders do not believe crossover voting will have a significant impact on the Republican primary. But Democrats warn that it could rob the state party of valuable resources and opportunities that are apportioned based on primary voter turnout.

Crossover Expected

South Carolina is an open primary state, meaning that any registered voter can participate in either party’s primary election but not both. No party registration is required.

In the Jan. 15 New Hampshire primary, where independent voters were able to choose which primary to participate in, a significant number chose to vote Republican in order to support Ms. Haley in an effort to thwart President Trump.

“I think there will be crossover voting” in this year’s primary, Marcurius Byrd told The Epoch Times. Mr. Byrd, 39, of Columbia, is the senior advisor to the Central Midlands chapter of South Carolina Young Democrats.

Mr. Byrd said that the presence of President Trump in the race has caused a number of people to adopt what he termed a meta-strategy with their vote.

“I do know a significant amount of people ... who are going to go with what they feel, and they have this feeling that they have to vote against Donald Trump,” Mr. Byrd said.

“I’m a Nikki Haley supporter as it pertains to Trump,” Chuch Welsh, 79, of Columbia, told The Epoch Times. “We’ve got to beat him. Somebody’s got to beat him. If it’s Biden, that’s fine too,” Mr. Welsh said at a Feb. 1 Haley campaign event.

“If we can beat him prior to the general election, that would be wonderful,” he added. “Then I would have a choice.”

Some Republicans share that sentiment. A Reuters/Ipsos poll in December found that 31 percent of Republicans would not vote for President Trump.

Mylan Samuels, 63, of Columbia, likes Haley for the freshness that she brings to the race but is also motivated by a desire to keep Trump off the November ballot. “I support the alternative to Donald Trump for the Republican party,” Mr. Samuels told The Epoch Times. He describes himself as a registered Republican but an independent thinker.

Ms. Haley is campaigning in South Carolina, her home state, but does not appear to be actively appealing to supporters of President Biden to vote in the Republican primary to oppose President Trump.

Valerie Moore, chair of the Richland County Democratic Party, at the group’s headquarters in Columbia, S.C., on Feb. 1, 2024. Lawrence Wilson/The Epoch Times

Asked about the matter after a Feb. 1 campaign stop, Ms. Haley said, “Anytime I do an event, we don’t ask someone at the door if they’re a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent. What we say is, ‘Do you want something different in our country?’ I’m going to continue doing that.”

Ms. Haley said she is aiming to attract Republican voters but added, “If we get Reagan Democrats that want to come in, I’m going to take it.”

Little Impact

Though still wide, the gap between President Trump and Ms. Haley has narrowed a bit in recent days. The average of polls reported by FiveThirtyEight on Feb. 2 showed President Trump at 63 percent and Ms. Haley at 32 percent.

Before the Jan. 15 New Hampshire primary, President Trump led by 41 percent to Haley’s 30 percent. President Trump won that primary by 54 percent to 43 percent.

Leaders in both parties have said they don’t expect crossover voting to significantly impact the result of the Republican primary.

“[Crossover votes] usually won’t make a difference. You can look at New Hampshire ... the Democratic crossover wasn’t enough to get the win,” Mr. Byrd said.

“There are not enough vote crossover voters to move the needle measurably, and I think we saw that in New Hampshire,” Ms. Moore said.

Republicans, for their part, seem unconcerned about the prospect of crossover voters affecting the outcome of their primary.

South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson expects to see very little crossover voting by Democrats in the Republican party.

“This is a very different electorate with very different rules for when and how you can vote in a presidential preference primary,” Mr. Wilson told The Epoch Times on Feb. 1. “I think you’re going to see a number of independents supporting President Trump, but I think the vast, vast majority of the Republican Party in South Carolina is going to support the support the president.”

Even if Ms. Haley were to do reasonably well in the GOP primary, she would not gain any delegates to the party’s nominating convention unless he received the majority of the vote in at least one of the state’s seven congressional districts.

More Harm than Good

Party officials are urging Democrats to think long term with their voting and realize voting in the Republican primary could have the unintended consequence of damaging the state’s Democratic party.

“The [Democratic National Committee] provides resources based on turnout, and that’s really critical for us,” Ms. Moore said.

“If you vote for us in the Democratic primary, you actually help us build our party, our infrastructure, and make us stronger,” Mr. Byrd said. “It’s not a wasted vote because then we can actually turn around and do something with that vote.”

Democrats have been rallying voters through a statewide First in the Nation Tour, which celebrates their status as the first official Democratic primary in this election cycle.

At a tour stop in Florence, DNC chair Jaimie Harrison, a South Carolina native, urged voters not to vote for the state’s former governor, Nikki Haley, in the Republican primary, citing what he called Ms. Haley’s failures in health care policy, which led to hospital closures, and her failure to upgrade the state’s infrastructure.

Mr. Harrison asked voters to vote for President Joe Biden instead in the Feb. 3 Democratic primary. “You are the first in the nation,” Mr. Harrison said. “Do you understand the power that comes along with that?”

South Carolina State Rep. Terry Alexander of Florence lamented the fact that 300,000 African Americans who were registered to vote in the last election did not do so. He urged rallygoers to be diligent in bringing others to the polls on election day.

“They’re anticipating us not voting,” he said.