In warning for Trump, Nikki Haley wins almost 17 per cent of Pennsylvania’s primary vote

Harrisburg: When Nikki Haley suspended her presidential campaign in March, she refused to endorse Donald Trump as the last remaining major candidate for the 2024 Republican nomination — and apparently so did some of her supporters in Pennsylvania.

Haley won almost 17 per cent of Pennsylvania’s primary vote on Tuesday (US time), or one in six votes, to Trump’s 83 per cent, despite not campaigning for president since she ended her bid in early March.

Nikki Haley has suspended her presidential campaign. Credit: Bloomberg

Pennsylvania’s 19 electoral votes up for grabs in the presidential election make it a premier battleground state. So should those Haley GOP voters refuse to support Trump in November, it could prove a damaging blow to his prospects for victory in the state and, possibly, re-election.

Haley’s base was never big enough to seriously challenge Trump before he clinched a third straight Republican presidential nomination.

But with nearly all ballots counted in Pennsylvania’s primary, the former UN ambassador and South Carolina governor tallied more than 156,000 votes, or about twice the 80,500-vote margin by which Democrat Joe Biden beat Trump in Pennsylvania in 2020. Pennsylvania’s election was even closer in 2016, when Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by 44,000 votes.

A voter marks their ballot at a polling place in Bristol, Pennsylvania.Credit: AP

A larger proportion of votes for Haley tended to come from urban and suburban areas where Trump suffered massive losses in his two previous presidential campaigns.

Haley did particularly well in the counties of Montgomery, Delaware and Chester, suburbs of Philadelphia, where she received about one out of every four votes, state election data showed.

“That’s an area that’s highly educated, more moderate in its politics, and crucial for winning Pennsylvania,” said Christopher Borick, professor of political science at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

“We saw that in 2020, if you wanted to pick one spot in Pennsylvania that ended Trump’s chance here, it was the Philadelphia suburbs.”

In 2020, Biden won Pennsylvania by less than 1.5 per cent, or roughly 80,000 votes. Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton there by fewer than 45,000 votes in 2016.

Biden received 929,798 votes, or 93.1 per cent of the Democratic total in the primary vote, according to unofficial state election data.

But Biden faced challenges as well.

Muslim and Arab-American voters mounted an “Abandon Biden” campaign in Pennsylvania to protest the president’s handling of the Gaza crisis. He faced similar efforts in battleground states like Arizona, Wisconsin and North Carolina, with the biggest turnout a 13 per cent uncommitted vote in Michigan’s primary.

Nikki Haley and Donald Trump.Credit: Marija Ercegovac

There were over 50,000 write-in votes on Tuesday, Borick noted, almost all of which were projected to be write-in “uncommitted” votes as part of the protest.

Official results, however, were not available because the votes have to be entered manually.

Organisers in Pennsylvania were aiming to get 40,000 write-in “uncommitted” votes.

Democrat turnout in the crucial Philadelphia county was also weak.

On Tuesday, Biden got 131,298 votes there, compared to 239,492 votes in the 2020 primaries. The smaller Allegheny county had better turnout than Philadelphia, posting 144,184 votes for Biden on Tuesday.

“Historically, Philadelphia has been the electoral engine that drives Democrats to win Pennsylvania,” Borick said. In 2020, Biden received 81.4 per cent of the vote, or 603,790 votes, there.

Biden clinched the Democratic nomination and Trump secured the Republican nod in early March, and neither faces serious opposition on the primary ballot.

Biden and Trump have visited the state in recent weeks and focused on the general election rather than Tuesday’s vote.

Biden was born and spent part of his childhood in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and has for decades been a fixture in the politics of neighbouring Delaware.

US Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota won 7 per cent against Biden, or nearly 70,000 votes as of Wednesday morning.

Phillips and Haley qualified for Pennsylvania’s primary ballot before they dropped out of the presidential race, and Biden and Trump are on track to win their parties’ presidential nominations and face each other in November’s general election. Phillips has endorsed Biden.

About 1 million ballots have been counted in Tuesday’s GOP and Democratic presidential primaries in Pennsylvania, out of 3.5 million registered Republican voters and 3.9 million registered Democratic voters.

Pennsylvania holds closed primary elections, meaning that someone must have been registered as a Republican or a Democrat by April 8 to have voted in the primary for that party.

AP, Reuters

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