What do Haley voters, donors and supporters consider her to be when she says she’ll support Trump in November

Many have told ABC News it was inevitable However, they’re divided

By Soo Rin Kim, Hannah Demissie, Kelsey Walsh

May 24, 2024 07:39 PM

Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s supporters are still split after she said she will be voting for former President Donald Trump , some seeing it as a “greenlight” for them to vote for Trump as well, while others are still not convinced.

After Haley stopped her campaign in march, Trump was immediately the likely GOP candidate but was faced with the responsibility of regaining the support of Haley’s supporters and unifying with the Republican Party without her endorsement particularly after months of intense rivalry.

Haley’s announcement on Wednesday she would be voting for Trump was a sign of easing the ongoing animosity between the two. Trump himself saying in interviews with reporters the following day that he was happy with Haley’s comments – and even said that he believes that she’s “going to be on our team,” without clarifying what he meant when he said “our team.”

The latest remarks by the two men is an attempt to unite their base of supporters, especially for Haley’s supporters who donated to her earlier in the year after Trump “permanently barred” them from his MAGA movement, saying, “We don’t want them, and will not accept them,” in the midst of a tension between the two grew during the primaries.

“Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forth, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp,” Trump posted in his Facebook site in January. “We don’t want them and will not tolerate them. …”

Eric Levine, a New York-based Haley fundraiser who had pledged not to support Trump following the January. 6th, 2021 assault at the U.S. Capitol but had recently announced that he was casting a vote for Trump and asked: “What was her alternative?”

He said that ABC News voting for Biden instead of Trump is not a viable choice at this point, as Trump is in charge and the United States needs to “support Israel, confront our enemies and support our allies.” Levine added that Haley’s remarks — even if not an endorsement in fullmight persuade some of her fans who feel “lost” inch toward Trump.

“I think this gives a lot of people permission to not just not vote for Joe Biden, but to vote for Donald Trump,” Levine stated. “I think this is a very important statement that she made.”

Longtime Haley friend David Wilkins, a former U.S. ambassador to Canada under the Bush administration and Haley’s announcement, also praised the move to be “a good move,” declaring “Republicans need to be united as best we can.”

Ozzie Palomo an influential lobbyist and GOP bundler who has raised funds for Haley expressed the same opinion, saying “I think it’s the right call.”

“All the statements she made about Trump was during the primary; primaries are over and I think the world has dramatically changed, probably faster and more significantly than anyone anticipated over the last five, six months,” Palomo declared, while criticizing Biden’s administration. Biden administration.

“Her saying she plans to vote for him probably gives cover to a significant portion of those that remain on the fence to feel comfortable enough to do the same,” Palomo stated although she acknowledged there are likely to be some who do not be supportive of Trump.

Palomo has said that her statement that she’ll support Trump she is “about as close to a full-out endorsement as you’re gonna get from her at least in the near term.”

“She could have easily said I’m not voting for Biden and left that open ended,” Palomo declared. “However, she took the opportunity in a very public format to stress the fact that based on geopolitical matters and other policies like immigration, the economic mess, she’s comfortable to pick one over the other in a clear binary choice.”

Palomo stated that it’s “incumbent on the former presidential reach out to her supporters and try to lure them back,” but she also noted that the Trump campaign as well as the Republican Party’s recent successes in fundraising indicates that a large number of supporters are already moving in Trump’s direction, and Trump himself has been announcing his support for Team Trump’s lucrative joint fundraising effort together with his fellow members of the Republican National Committee.

Yet, another major Haley donor who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely and freely, told ABC News that Haley’s decision to support Trump didn’t change her mind about putting a name in her name for the November election instead of supporting the former president.

“I’m not voting for him — I’ll just tell you that,” the donor stated. “I know it’s a binary choice, and I bravo and brava to those who take the binary choice seriously. I’ll be writing in Nikki Haley.”

The donor stated that the only reason she’s going to vote for Trump is in the event that Haley is chosen to be his running mate. However, the donor didn’t think that will happen.

In the last month Trump immediately averted the rumors that his team might consider Haley as a potential running mate. He posted via his Twitter platforms, “Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well!”

“I’m surprised how many of the bigger donors are coming to the same conclusion that Nikki has,” the donor told the media, adding “Clearly, I’m a minority in the GOP.”

The donor claimed that she is disappointed by Biden’s team’s efforts to win Haley’s supporters hasn’t been enough. She added that in the final analysis Haley has been “more at odds with Joe Biden than she is with Donald Trump.”

In the wake of Haley’s decision to withdraw out of presidential contests The Biden campaign has stated that there is an opportunity in their coalition for Haley supporters. They have continued to contact Haley supporters. Haley Coalition.

In the last few days, Biden’s reelection campaign called an audience of people who are supporters of the former president candidate Nikki Haley on Wednesday night–after Haley stated that she will support ex-President Donald Trump in November. In the call, people discussed the issues they considered important ahead of November, with a lot of the conversation focusing on immigration and the border.

“Does this help her? Does it hurt her? Maybe both,” the donor said about how Haley’s comments about her plans on voting for Trump could impact her political ambitions in the future.

“Some people that thought she was going to be the avatar of beating up Trump until he’s in the grave are probably not coming back for more spoonfuls, so I think that is a potential loss,” the donor stated. “But there are a lot of Republicans that are ‘real Republican’ … That is support whoever the nominee is — then you’re not a team player.”

People who voted for Haley at Haley’s GOP primary also expressed their displeasure at her claim that she’ll be voting for the former president. Many of them said they didn’t perceive her intention to support his endorsement as an absolute endorsement.

Eli Raykinstein, a student at Michigan State University, told ABC News he thought it was likely that Haley will say that she would vote for Trump However, he stated that he does not see this as an endorsement by the former president.

“I’ve already begun leaning more towards Trump, and I agree with Nikki when she says that Biden has been a complete catastrophe,” Raykinstein stated. “I’m also looking to see who Trump chooses as his running-mate for 2024 cause I’m sure that will skew my thinking on the race, too.”

Alissa Baker one of the voters in Virginia who voted for Haley said on ABC News that she felt relief after Haley stated that she would support Trump because we can stop speculating about the candidate she’d vote for in November.

Baker also agreed with Raykinstein’s views regarding the fact that Haley isn’t a supporter of Trump and said that this will not affect her choice of which candidate she’ll choose to vote for in November.

“This was a personal decision of a private citizen, not an endorsement. Nikki has told her voters to vote their conscience and in November, that’s exactly what I will do,” Baker declared.