Trump, Biden, RFK Jr. Seek Haley Voters After Former Governor Quits Race

Campaign signs for Republican presidential candidates former President Donald Trump and former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley stand next to a sign asking voters to write in "Joe Biden," in Loudon, N.H., on Jan. 19, 2024. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Now that the final major GOP challenger, Nikki Haley, has suspended her presidential run, the three remaining major candidates are vying for her voters.

At about the time that Ms. Haley announced her departure from the 2024 race on March 6, the Republican frontrunner, former President Donald Trump, and the Democrat incumbent, President Joe Biden, each made a public statement welcoming Ms. Haley’s supporters to change their allegiance.

The most prominent independent candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., made no similar outright appeal to Ms. Haley’s voters. Instead, he pointed out that polls have shown that many U.S. voters dread a Biden-Trump rematch, and he presented himself as an alternative for voters seeking “hope and healing” and “an inspiring vision for America.”

All three major candidates will benefit in some measure from Ms. Haley’s departure from the race, as hurdles loom for each of them.

Mr. Kennedy is saddled with collecting massive numbers of signatures to meet the ballot-qualifying thresholds that states set for independent candidates.

Citing the network’s research in multiple Super Tuesday states, ABC News reported, “Super Tuesday exit poll results showed challenges for Joe Biden and Donald Trump alike, including broad, substantive gaps between Trump and Nikki Haley voters.”

Leaning Left?

At least half of Ms. Haley’s voters in Virginia and North Carolina “said they approve of Biden’s work as president, as did 30 percent in California,” ABC News reported, suggesting that those voters would lean toward casting ballots for President Biden rather than President Trump.

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Even so, pollster Rich Baris told The Epoch Times that he doubts that the Haley voting bloc would exert much influence over the race’s outcome.

“Haley’s primary vote is largely made up of ’resistance' voters and a rather small percentage of Republican voters who would’ve rather had a different choice than the former president,” he said. “The latter will come home and unify behind the Republican nominee. The former will do what they told exit pollsters: support the Democrat as they did in 2020.”

A key point, he said, is that “the general election polling data suggest Trump doesn’t need to do much to snare voters who didn’t vote for him in the primary.”

Indeed, some Republican Haley voters in various early-primary states told The Epoch Times that, if she dropped out, they would vote for President Trump. Others told The Epoch Times that they remained “Never Trumpers,“ and would make protest votes by writing in Ms. Haley’s name on the general election ballot.

Entreaties to Haley’s Fans

Just after his near-sweep of the March 5 Super Tuesday contests—winning 14 out of 15 states—President Trump posted on Truth Social that he wanted “to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our nation.”

Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. poses with supporters during a meet-and-greet after a voter rally at St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids, Mich., on Feb. 10, 2024. (Emily Elconin/Getty Images)

However, in that same March 6 statement, President Trump also said he had “trounced” Ms. Haley and hoped that she would continue her campaign, implying that he wanted to continue to beat her.

Following a contentious campaign, Ms. Haley didn’t endorse President Trump when she made her campaign suspension announcement. The former governor of South Carolina served as United Nations ambassador during his presidency. Ms. Haley and other GOP candidates signed a “loyalty pledge” to support the Republican Party’s eventual nominee. However, she recently stated that, because of changes in the party’s upper echelon, she no longer felt obligated to abide by that promise.

Nikki Haley with supporters at the Madison Hotel, the only polling place for the District of Columbia Republican presidential primary, in Washington on March 1, 2024. (Terri Wu/The Epoch Times)

In a response to Ms. Haley’s exit from the race, President Biden asserted that President Trump had “made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Democrat president didn’t specify a statement from President Trump to support that contention.

However, President Biden’s campaign posted a video clip showing that President Trump previously told MSNBC that Ms. Haley’s voters would “all vote for me again ... and I’m not sure we need too many.”

President Biden directed a message to Ms. Haley’s voters, saying: “I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign. ... I hope and believe we can find common ground.”

This combination of pictures shows President Donald Trump and Democrat presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden during the final presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville on Oct. 22, 2020. (Brendan Smialowski, Jim Watson, Morry Gash/AFP via Getty Images)

Chaos?

The incumbent president is getting help from organizations that oppose President Trump. A group called PrimaryPivot, which recruited independents and Democrats to vote for Ms. Haley in Republican primaries, has relaunched as “Haley Voters for Biden.”

During her speech announcing that she was leaving the race, Ms. Haley said: “It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party–and beyond it–who did not support him. And I hope he does that.”

When asked what messages President Trump might deliver to woo Ms. Haley’s voters, Jason Meister, a New York-based advisory board member for President Trump, told The Epoch Times, “I think it’s less about the messaging and more about the actions.”

He thinks that Ms. Haley’s voters, which included many moderate Democrats and independents, “now have a very clear picture of life under Donald Trump and life under Joe Biden.”

“They may not like the mean tweets” that President Trump used to post on Twitter during his presidency, Mr. Meister said. “They may not like the brashness of the candidate. But did they like life better under Donald Trump?”

He asserts that most people would agree that President Trump’s presidency ushered in a robust economy, peace in the Middle East, and a secure southern border, among other benefits.

Mr. Meister disagreed with Ms. Haley’s characterization that President Trump was associated with “chaos.” That statement represents “a lack of understanding of the political landscape,” he said.

“It’s the left that’s bringing about the chaos, and it’s the left-leaning media that’s created a straw man that is not Donald Trump,” Mr. Meister said.

Regardless of which candidate would become the Republican frontrunner or nominee, “whether it was [Florida Gov.] Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, or Donald Trump, there was always going to be ‘chaos,’” he said. “I can promise you that. Because anyone who opposes the left or challenges the swamp, they are subjected to chaos.”

“Donald Trump is the greatest fighter against that energy, that force. To say he is the chaos is wrong.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.