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SALT LAKE CITY — When Nikki Haley suspended her campaign last week, she didn't endorse former President Donald Trump. Instead, she challenged him.
"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," Haley said from her campaign headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, the day after Super Tuesday. "At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing."
Trump, Haley posits, needs to "earn" the support of her voters — many of whom backed her simply because she wasn't Trump. Trump took only a passive interest in the opportunity; moments before her speech, he bragged on Truth Social about Haley getting "TROUNCED ... in record setting fashion," and accused her voters of being "Radical Left Democrats." If they come around, though, they could be forgiven: "(I) would further like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation."
President Joe Biden — Trump's presumptive opponent in the November election — took a different tack. In a statement March 6, Biden complimented Haley. "It takes a lot of courage to run for president — that's especially true in today's Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump," Biden said.
"Donald Trump made it clear he doesn't want Nikki Haley's supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign," Biden added. He acknowledged there "is a lot we won't agree on," but said they could find "common ground" on "fundamental issues" like preserving democracy, standing for the rule of law and protecting U.S. allies.
The question, now, is whether Haley's supporters turn to Biden or Trump. Exit polling in early open or semi-open primaries — like New Hampshire and South Carolina — suggested that a decent amount of her supporters were Democrats, but nowhere near "almost 50%," as Trump suggested. That leaves millions of disgruntled Republicans and independents across the country up for grabs by Biden and Trump or other candidates.
At least one group is already working to win them over. Robert Schwartz, co-founder of the political action group Primary Pivot, worked in early primary states to convince Democrats to skip their party's primary and instead vote in the Republican primary for Haley.
"We'd love for Haley to win the nomination, but it's looking increasingly unlikely," he told the Deseret News. As such, his team had already transitioned to a new strategy: Hunker down in swing states and convince the Haley voters there to back Biden. He'd already sent staffers to North Carolina, Georgia and Michigan; between the three of them, there were 1 million Haley voters, he said.
Last week, Primary Pivot rebranded as Haley Voters For Biden. Schwartz acknowledges that it's a different message now — instead of convincing Democrats to vote for a Republican, they're talking Republicans into supporting a Democrat — but Schwartz sees parallels. "Our message to Democrats has been, 'Look, you may disagree on abortion and climate change, but she's better than Trump,'" Schwartz said. "Now, the pitch to Republicans is, 'You might disagree with Biden on abortion and climate change, but if you agree with choosing democracy over dictatorship, it's an easy choice.'"
On domestic policy, Haley supporters would likely agree with Trump much more than with Biden. But Haley staked her campaign on attacking Trump's foreign policy and his character, and many of her voters may see those as nonnegotiables.
Biden and Trump have eight months to build their coalitions, with "Haley voters" to be a key one.
