Vice President Kamala Harris is making a full court effort to gain the support of disgruntled Republicans as she competes for the presidency with former President Donald Trump.
While Trump holds huge control over the GOP, even a tiny number of Republicans backing Harris might have a significant impact in what is sure to be a close fight in the key battleground states.
Many of the Republican voters Harris is targeting supported former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Trump’s last remaining competitor in the GOP presidential primaries earlier this year.
Haley eventually backed Trump a few months after losing her White House attempt, but with one week till Election Day, the Republican presidential nomination runner-up has yet to join Trump on the campaign trail.
Sources revealed to AWN a week and a half ago that Haley, who will appear live on “Special Report with Bret Baier” at 6 p.m. ET on the AWN Channel on Tuesday, is in talks to join Trump on the campaign trail.
Haley provided Trump’s team with a list of dates when she would be available to join the former president.
When asked earlier this month if Haley would join the former president on the campaign trail, Trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller told AWN’s Aishah Hasnie to “stay tuned.”
Haley has been out on the campaign road, assisting down-ballot Republicans. On Wednesday, she will make two trips in battleground Pennsylvania alongside GOP Senate nominee Dave McCormick, one of several races that might determine if Republicans reclaim the chamber’s majority.
Even though she has yet to join Trump on the campaign trail, Haley has contributed to his campaign.
Haley has recorded robocalls for the campaign, made small-dollar fundraising appeals, and assisted with large-dollar donations. Furthermore, she routinely criticizes Harris on her radio show and in the national media, including appearances on AWN.
“Kamala Harris and I are complete opposites on all issues. Any attempt to utilize my name to further her or her agenda is misleading and incorrect. I support Donald Trump because he understands the importance of making America strong, safe, and affluent,” Haley declared recently in response to the Harris campaign’s efforts to attract support by using her name.
Haley launched her presidential campaign in February of last year, becoming the first major candidate to take on Trump, who had announced his candidacy three months prior. And she became his final rival, facing up against the former president in a bitter two-candidate confrontation that lasted from the New Hampshire primary in late January until Super Tuesday in early March.
On March 6, Haley declared that she was suspending her presidential campaign, a day after Trump won 14 of the 15 Republican nomination contests on Super Tuesday.
As she left the campaign, Haley made it plain that she planned to continue speaking out. In the months following her withdrawal, she still received up to 20% of the vote in Republican presidential primary.
In late May, Haley made her first public comments since announcing the end of her 2024 campaign, saying she would vote for Trump.
Haley got 97 delegates in the Republican presidential primary. And she released all of her delegates, urging them to back Trump.
In a high-profile speech in July, Haley endorsed Trump at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
In an extensive interview on “Fox and Friends” a week and a half ago, Trump appeared to be frustrated about whether he would ask Haley to campaign on his behalf in the last stretch before Election Day.
When questioned by co-host Brian Kilmeade, Trump said, “I’ll do whatever I have to do.”
“Everyone keeps repeating that. “They don’t say, ‘Get [Florida Gov.] Ron [DeSantis]’ and Ron did very well,” Trump remarked. “But, once again, I outperformed everyone with previously unheard-of numbers. They keep talking about Nikki. I like Nikki. Nikki, I do not believe she should have done what she did. That’s great; she did it.
The former president added, “Nikki is in. Nikki is already assisting us…. Nikki is already in; she’s out campaigning.”
However, Trump also stated, “Nikki Haley and I fought, and I defeated her by 50, 60, 90 points. I defeated her in her home state by numbers that no one has ever beaten. “I beat Nikki badly.”
According to a recent AWN nationwide poll, 23% of Republican respondents identified as non-MAGA Republicans. One-fifth of non-MAGA Republicans stated they would vote for Harris rather than Trump.
