Former Democratic Rep. Max Rose said Thursday that Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley appears to be funded by liberal activists.
Rose reacted to Haley telling supporters that both President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are the “most disliked politicians in America.” Rose argued Haley will not gain traction in the primary because she is struggling for support among Republican voters, but is remaining financially strong due to donations from previous Biden supporters.
“What is awfully quirky about this situation, though, is even though no one, and there’s no poll that will show her winning virtually any primary, she’s not having a money problem,” Rose said. “So normally when a politician is in this, they lose money … and this is the tragedy, and the difficulty and the challenge of the Republican Party right now, because there’s this gigantic schism between what the Republican primary base wants, which is MAGA all the way, and what this very large moderate middle wants. Some of whom are actually Republicans, many of whom are Independents and some of whom are swing Democrats, and they don’t want anything to do with Donald Trump.”
“That’s why Donald Trump’s running through these primaries and is gonna struggle so significantly with a general electorate,” he continued. “Think about this. Nikki Haley’s financial supporters, some of whom have donated to Biden, have donated significant amounts to Biden — imagine in 2020, if a bunch Biden supporters swung in — or, excuse me, Trump supporters swung in for Joe Biden or swung in for Bernie Sanders. You can’t fathom that because he’s locked down the Democratic Party from primary voters all the way through to moderates. It’s a much more unified party than the Republicans.” (RELATED: One Of Nikki Haley’s Main Arguments Against Trump Doesn’t Hold Water)
The Republican primary is set to occur in Haley’s home state of South Carolina on Saturday, where Trump leads his opponent 63% to 33% at the time of writing, according to FiveThirtyEight. Haley has adamantly vowed not to drop out of the race despite her polling numbers lagging significantly behind Trump’s.
Haley lost to Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire where the former president won both state primaries in a landslide. The former president garnered a historic win in Iowa with 51% of the vote, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis received 21.2% and Haley came in third with 19.1%, The Associated Press (AP) reported.
Despite Trump also winning New Hampshire by over 50%, according to the AP, Haley said the race is “far from over.”
A Marquette Law School poll from early February found Haley leading Biden in a potential general election 57% to 41%. Trump led the president by one percentage point, 50% to 49%.