Some of Nikki Haley’s Pennsylvania backers presumably shared her refusal to embrace Donald Trump, the lone significant Republican contender for the 2024 candidacy, when Haley halted her presidential campaign.
Despite not running for president since she dropped out in early March, Haley received 16% of Pennsylvania’s primary votes (or nearly 17% of the total) compared to 83% for Trump.
Pennsylvania is a top battleground state because of the 19 electoral votes it offers for president. Therefore, Trump’s chances of winning the state and, perhaps, reelection, could take a hit if those GOP voters in Haley choose not to back him in November.
Prior to securing his third consecutive Republican presidential nomination, Haley’s following was never large enough to pose a serious challenge to Trump.
Ex-South Carolina governor and former United Nations ambassador to Pennsylvania received almost 156,000 votes as of the primary’s near-final tally, which is about double the margin of victory that Democratic candidate Joe Biden had over Trump in 2020 (80,500 votes). In 2016, Trump narrowly defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton by 44,000 votes in Pennsylvania, an even more closely contested election.
Urban and suburban areas, which Trump lost badly in his first two presidential bids, tended to cast more ballots for Haley.
U.S. Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota received around 70,000 votes, or 7% of the total, in his race against Joe Biden on Wednesday morning. The number of write-in candidates was approximately 60,000, according to the counties. The split of write-in votes for “uncommitted” was not immediately available, as a few counties still hadn’t submitted their totals.
Before dropping out of the contest, Phillips and Haley were eligible to vote in Pennsylvania’s presidential primary; Biden and Trump are expected to secure their party’s nominations for president and will face off in November’s general election. Phillips is a Biden supporter.
Out of 3.5 million registered Republican voters and 3.9 million registered Democratic voters in Pennsylvania’s presidential primaries held on Tuesday, approximately 1 million ballots have been counted for each party.
In order to cast a ballot in the Republican or Democratic primary in Pennsylvania, one must have their party registration in good standing as of April 8th.
