Donald Trump breezes to victory with double Nikki Haley’s votes in Michigan

Donald Trump has swept all five Republican primaries this year, delivering the latest blow to Nikki Haley’s underdog bid and heightening pressure on Haley to bow out.

Nikki Haley speaks during a campaign event in Bloomington, Minnesota. Picture: AFP.

Donald Trump has won Michigan’s Republican presidential primary, marking the fifth straight victory for the former president in this year’s major nominating contests and delivering the latest blow to Nikki Haley’s underdog bid.

The Associated Press called the race for Trump just after the polls closed, moving him closer to a historic rematch with President Biden in November’s election and heightening pressure on Haley to bow out.

Michigan will be a key battleground state in this northern autumn, so primary results will be analysed for what they might forecast. The state backed Trump in 2016, before flipping back to the Democrats and Biden in 2020.

Once a rising star in the GOP before Trump came to dominate the party, Haley had a simple answer when asked in a Wall Street Journal interview the day before the primary why she is still campaigning when Trump appears unstoppable.

“I’m doing what I think is right,” she said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal. “I’m doing what I believe 70% of Americans want me to do.”

That number references polling showing seven in 10 Americans want an option other than Trump versus President Biden in this year’s presidential election.

Donald Trump has won all the Republican Primaries this year. Picture: Getty Images.

The former South Carolina governor, who was also the first United Nations ambassador in the Trump administration, has pledged to stay in the race through Super Tuesday on March 5, when 15 states hold contests. Trump could be positioned to gain the delegates needed to secure the nomination by a week or two after that.

Haley held two campaign events in Michigan on Sunday and Monday after losing to Trump Saturday in her home state by 20 percentage points. Trump last visited Michigan on Feb. 17 and was expected to remotely participate in local media interviews on Tuesday.

In a show of her determination, Haley’s campaign has outlined a gruelling travel schedule in the coming days that will include stops in Colorado, Utah, Virginia, North Carolina and Massachusetts.

Haley warned that the Republican Party will continue to see electoral failure if it follows Trump and that his selection as the GOP nominee will result in Biden’s re-election.

“You have to see the writing on the wall, you have to see the hole in the ship,” she said. “And if you don’t see the hole in the ship, we’re all going to go down.” A Trump spokesman didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. Trump, who has declared that the primary is over, asked Monday on social media: “When will Nikki realise she is just a bad candidate?” Haley pledged earlier in the campaign to endorse the party’s eventual nominee, but now refuses to reaffirm that commitment when asked about Trump. “What I will tell you is that I have serious concerns about Donald Trump. I have more serious concerns about Joe Biden,” she said, adding that she doesn’t want either to win.

She pointed to the 91 criminal charges Trump faces for matters including his handling of classified documents and efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

“This may be his survival mode to pay his legal fees and get out of some sort of legal peril, but this is like suicide for our country,” she said. “We’ve got to realise that if we don’t have someone who can win a general election, all we are doing is caving to the socialist left.” Haley, who once had a good working relationship with Trump, said she wasn’t sure whether that would ever be possible again, given the recent animosity.

“It’s not personal for me,” she said. “It’s not something I think about.” Haley has stressed in her campaign appearances that even as essentially a Republican incumbent, Trump has failed to secure roughly 40% of the vote in some of the early state contests and that suggests he could struggle to win in November.

“He’s not going to get the 40% by calling them names,” she said Sunday evening in Troy, Mich. “He’s not going to get the 40% if he is not willing to change and do something that acknowledges the 40%. And why should the 40% have to cave to him?” Roughly a month after she applied for Secret Service protection because of increasing threats she has received as Trump’s last major opponent for nomination, Haley has yet to be granted that request.

“We’ve got to just go forward, so I don’t allow myself to think about it, ” she said when asked whether she feels safe on the campaign trail.

In her speech after losing in South Carolina Saturday night, Haley sounded at times like she was trying to carve out a third path between Trump and Biden, both of whom she criticised repeatedly. While meeting with a large group of reporters before a rally she held in Grand Rapids, Haley again rejected the notion that she might contemplate a third-party presidential bid.

“I have not spoken with anyone about anything other than running as a Republican,” she said. “I’m running in a Republican primary and I’m going to continue running in a Republican primary.” In Michigan, Trump leads Haley by 57 percentage points in FiveThirtyEight’s average of state polls. The state’s GOP was long a bastion of traditional conservatism (it is the birthplace of Utah Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, a Trump critic), but in the Trump era it has moved in a more populist direction and been embroiled with infighting.

At stake in Tuesday’s GOP primary are 16 delegates, which will be awarded proportionally. Another 39 delegates are supposed to be awarded at a Saturday convention, but because the state party is in the middle of a tense leadership fight there are duelling conventions scheduled in different parts of the state.

Most polls in Michigan close Tuesday at 8pm. ET, except for a handful of counties in the Upper Peninsula where they close at 9pm. ET.

Jerry Kregel, a 60-year-old owner of a Christian publishing company who lives in suburban Grand Rapids, attended Haley’s event here and said he planned to vote for her Tuesday.

“I appreciate what she stands for and what she stands against,” he said. “The alternative is a horrendous option.” Kregel described Trump as self-centred and bad for the nation’s reputation around the globe.

“He has put so much focus on himself that it’s detrimental to the country,” he said. “He has done so much to divide the country and damage unity.” Tim Cook, a 62-year-old computer consultant from suburban Grand Rapids, said outside a polling place Tuesday that he voted for Trump.

“Ever since he left office, everything has gone to crud,” he said. “If he gets back in office, he will fix the economy and the border and hopefully some of this Middle East stuff.” Cook said it was time for Haley to exit from the race. “She’s burning resources for the party,” he said.

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