(Updates with Haley winning Washington, D.C. primary)
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has apparently backed off a pledge made to the Republican National Committee that she would support the GOP presidential nominee.
Back in June 2023, the RNC announced that it was requiring presidential candidates to pledge to support the party’s eventual nominee if they wanted to participate in the first GOP primary debate in August. Haley pledged to support the nominee; former President Donald Trump refused to sign the loyalty pledge and ended up skipping all the primary debates.
In an interview that aired Sunday, Haley was asked by NBC News’ “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker, “So you’re no longer bound by that pledge?” Haley responded that she was not obligated to endorse former President Donald Trump if he becomes the GOP nominee.
Haley said:
“No, I think I’ll make what decision I want to make, but that’s not something I’m thinking about,” she said, noting that “if you talk about an endorsement, you’re talking about a loss. I don’t think like that.”
She added, “When you’re in a race, you don’t think about losing. You think about continuing to go forward.”
Haley basically dodged the question. This was an apparent shift from her position last August in an ABC News interview when Haley said she would support Trump as the GOP nominee even if he is convicted of a felony. When asked why, she replied: “Because I am not comfortable with a President Kamala Harris. And she added: “I think we would be in a far worse situation. A vote for Joe Biden is a vote for Kamala Harris.
But the former South Carolina governor did offer a justification for her shift in the “Meet the Press” interview: “The RNC is not the same RNC” and that “now it’s Trump’s” RNC.
RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel and co-chair Drew McKissick have said they will step down from their positions on March 8. Trump has proposed replacing them with MAGA loyalists Michael Whatley, an election denier and the North Carolina GOP chair, and daughter-in-law Lara Trump, Eric’s wife.
And even though she’s lost all the GOP primaries and caucuses so far, putting Trump on the path to securing the nomination this month, Haley has recently sharpened her criticism of Trump, calling him “unhinged” and ”more diminished than he was.”
Trump overwhelmingly swept caucuses in idaho and Missouri and a convention in Michigan on Saturday. He won all 54 delegates available in Missouri, but his victory in Missouri was marred by the behavior of some Trump supporters toward Haley backers..
Haley’s campaign released this statement blaming its defeat in the Missouri caucuses on voter intimidation by Trump supporters, according to The New York Times:
“Reports out of the Missouri caucus today show how the Republican Party under Donald Trump has become a shrinking party that bullies and rejects anyone who doesn’t take the MAGA oath of allegiance,” the statement said.
The statement followed accounts from some Haley supporters of being booed and jeered during caucus meetings — surely not the best way to win their support in November.
Lynn Schmidt, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist, posted this on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Caucused for Nikki Haley today in Missouri today. Made to feel intimated and scared for standing up for what's right. Haley supporters were told to line up 2 x 2 in the middle of the floor of the gym, while Trump's supporters, who are also our neighbors, booed at Nikki's candidacy.
And Fred Wellman, an ex-Republican and current Democratic campaign consultant, posted this on X:
I have a friend who attended the Missouri Republican Presidential Caucus today. They asked Nikki Haley supporters to line up in the middle of the auditorium and were booed and screamed at by the Trump supporters. They attacked fellow Republicans. Feel like democracy to you?
“The woman who spoke for Haley couldn’t stop shaking and crying. It was so scary.”
In 2016, the GOP held a competitive presidential primary. But in 2022, the GOP-controlled state legislature eliminated the primary and allowed the state’s political parties to choose how they select delegates to the national conventions.
The Republicans decided to go with caucuses. Missouri Democrats are holding a primary-like contest on March 23, with mail-in and in-person voting options.
Mid-Missouri television station KOMO 8 reported on the difference in turnout between the 2016 primary and 2024 caucuses in some counties.
n total, 263 voters attended the Boone County caucus, according to the committee. For comparison, more than 25,000 Boone County voters cast ballots in the 2016 Republican presidential primary election.
In Callaway County, 143 participants showed up at the Callaway Electric Cooperative Saturday to vote. In the 2016 Republican presidential primary, election, more than 7,500 people voted Callaway County.
Haley did pick up a consolation prize by winning her first contest in the Republican nomination. Haley won the Washington, D.C., primary on Sunday by a margin of 63% to 33% over Trump, picking up all 19 delegates. But only a little more than 2,000 votes were cast in the heavily Democratic city.
The Washington Post wrote:
In a statement, Haley campaign spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas noted that the former U.N. ambassador is the first woman to win a Republican primary in U.S. history.
“It’s not surprising that Republicans closest to Washington dysfunction are rejecting Donald Trump and all his chaos,” Perez-Cubas said in the statement.
Almost immediately after the race was called for Haley, Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt mocked Haley and D.C. Republicans by echoing Trump’s constant claims that the capital city is a “swamp” full of establishment Republicans.
“While Nikki has been soundly rejected throughout the rest of America, she was just crowned Queen of the Swamp by the lobbyists and DC insiders that want to protect the failed status quo,” Leavitt said in a statement.
But in two days it will be Super Tuesday when 15 Republican nominating contests are being held, awarding more than a third of the delegates to the nominating convention. And Trump is expected to swamp Haley and move closer to securing the nomination.
And now there’s a question of what Haley voters will do if as seems nearly inevitable Trump wins the nomination: Will they support Biden, Trump, a third party candidate, or not vote at all for president. Polls of Republican voters in the early primary states show that a significant percentage of Haley voters will not support Trump in the November election.
And as Missouri indicates there may be growing bitterness among Haley supporters about their treatment at the hands of the dominant MAGA wing of the party.
This raises another question about the findings of the recent New York Times/Siena Poll which show Trump leading Biden nationally by a margin of 48% to 43%.
The New York Times wrote:
Mr. Trump’s ability to consolidate the Republican base better than Mr. Biden has unified the base of his own party shows up starkly in the current thinking of 2020 voters. Mr. Trump is winning 97 percent of those who say they voted for him four years ago, and virtually none of his past supporters said they are casting a ballot for Mr. Biden. In contrast, Mr. Biden is winning only 83 percent of his 2020 voters, with 10 percent saying they now back Mr. Trump.
That’s what accounts for Trump’s lead in the national poll. But is that really the case based on the polls of Haley supporters in the primaries?.