Haley isn’t expanding the GOP tent, she’s bringing in leftists who want to infiltrate the Republican primary and destroy the party.
Is Nikki Haley a creation of the Washington establishment and its consultant class, a regime-picked candidate being groomed as a possible replacement for Biden — as Tucker Carlson suggested last week — or does she really have broad electoral appeal?
One curious argument going around for the latter view is that a surprising number of Democrats and independents say they’re planning to vote for Haley in upcoming primaries. We already saw this last Monday at the Iowa caucuses, where almost half of Haley’s supporters — 43 percent — said they’d vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
In one Iowa precinct, so many Democrats showed up and requested forms to change their party affiliation so they could participate in the caucus and vote for Haley, they ran out of forms.
It’s shaping up to be the same story in New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Tuesday. New Hampshire has an open primary, meaning independents or unaffiliated voters (who make up 40 percent of all registered voters in the state) can cast ballots in the GOP primary election. Because the Democrat Party isn’t holding a primary, and because New Hampshire voters had until Oct. 6 to change party registration, a lot of Democrats are expected to be voting in the Republican primary this week. Thousands of New Hampshire Democrats have reportedly changed their registration, either to unaffiliated or to Republican, and will likely be voting Tuesday.
Who will these non-Republicans being voting for? Nikki Haley, of course. One poll found that among Haley supporters only 28 percent were Republicans, versus 53 percent who said they were Democrats. Another New Hampshire poll this week found that among voters who consider themselves left-leaning or moderate, Haley is beating Trump 56 to 27 percent. The same poll also found that a staggering 37 percent of likely Haley voters say their support for the former U.N. ambassador isn’t so much a vote for Haley but against Trump.
Despite all this polling data, the argument among the pro-Haley crowd is that all this crossover primary voting shows how strong she might be in the general election, that she appeals to a broad voter base, and that her moderate views will expand the GOP tent in November. Haley herself has pushed this line, telling a reporter last month, “If we get independents, if we get conservative Democrats, that’s what the Republican Party should pursue. Our goal is to get as many people in the tent as we can. Stop pushing people away from the party. Instead, bring people in.”