"Donald J. Trump’s daunting level of Republican support helped him vanquish a field of presidential primary rivals in under two months.
But he still hasn’t won over one small but crucial group of voters — the men and women who cost him a second term in 2020.
His overwhelming primary victories, including more than a dozen on Tuesday that pushed Nikki Haley from the race, have masked his long-term problems with voters who live in the suburbs, those who view themselves as moderates or independents, and Republicans who backed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump lost suburban precincts in Virginia despite carrying the state by a staggering 28 percentage points. In North Carolina, his 51-point victory was tempered by much narrower margins in the highly educated and affluent suburbs around Charlotte and Raleigh.
While many Republican strategists anticipate that most Haley voters will eventually support the party’s nominee, Mr. Trump’s failure to bring these voters into the fold less than four years after they helped block him from a second term in the White House raises pressing questions about what he can do in the next eight months to win them over.
He has not seemed especially concerned about this challenge, recently threatening to excommunicate his rival’s donors from his political movement. On Wednesday, he posted on social media that Ms. Haley “got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion,” even as he invited “all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.”
Mr. Trump’s inability to broaden his support stands among the biggest threats to his party’s efforts to reclaim the presidency. Notably, Ms. Haley appeared to be a stronger November candidate: Polls including a recent New York Times/Siena College survey suggested that she would have had an easier time unseating Mr. Biden...
“That’s the big lesson from the primary states so far: There are a significant number of Republican voters who wanted a choice in this primary process, and they are people the former president has to win over by the time November comes around,” said Rob Godfrey, who served as a top aide to Ms. Haley when she was governor of South Carolina and as a senior adviser to Gov. Henry McMaster’s re-election campaign in 2022. “He can do it if he runs a disciplined campaign on policy and not personality, and one that focuses on the perceived failures of his opponent.” (not likely)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/us/politics/donald-trump-primary-wins.html
But he still hasn’t won over one small but crucial group of voters — the men and women who cost him a second term in 2020.
His overwhelming primary victories, including more than a dozen on Tuesday that pushed Nikki Haley from the race, have masked his long-term problems with voters who live in the suburbs, those who view themselves as moderates or independents, and Republicans who backed Joseph R. Biden Jr. in 2020.
On Tuesday, Mr. Trump lost suburban precincts in Virginia despite carrying the state by a staggering 28 percentage points. In North Carolina, his 51-point victory was tempered by much narrower margins in the highly educated and affluent suburbs around Charlotte and Raleigh.
While many Republican strategists anticipate that most Haley voters will eventually support the party’s nominee, Mr. Trump’s failure to bring these voters into the fold less than four years after they helped block him from a second term in the White House raises pressing questions about what he can do in the next eight months to win them over.
He has not seemed especially concerned about this challenge, recently threatening to excommunicate his rival’s donors from his political movement. On Wednesday, he posted on social media that Ms. Haley “got TROUNCED last night, in record setting fashion,” even as he invited “all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our Nation.”
Mr. Trump’s inability to broaden his support stands among the biggest threats to his party’s efforts to reclaim the presidency. Notably, Ms. Haley appeared to be a stronger November candidate: Polls including a recent New York Times/Siena College survey suggested that she would have had an easier time unseating Mr. Biden...
“That’s the big lesson from the primary states so far: There are a significant number of Republican voters who wanted a choice in this primary process, and they are people the former president has to win over by the time November comes around,” said Rob Godfrey, who served as a top aide to Ms. Haley when she was governor of South Carolina and as a senior adviser to Gov. Henry McMaster’s re-election campaign in 2022. “He can do it if he runs a disciplined campaign on policy and not personality, and one that focuses on the perceived failures of his opponent.” (not likely)
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/06/us/politics/donald-trump-primary-wins.html
