Former President Donald Trump’s dominance on the issues that matter most to GOP primary voters — the economy and immigration — casts a dark cloud over Nikki Haley’s hopes of delivering a come-from-behind victory.
Scrambling to tarnish Mr. Trump’s image, Ms. Haley is telling audiences he is becoming “unhinged” and more focused on seeking revenge against his rivals than he is on addressing the issues that most animate voters.
But that line of attack flies in the face of the message voters have sent about their chief concerns in the first two nomination contests.
“The two biggest issues are immigration and the economy, and those are the two issues Republicans most often associate with Trump’s term and why he’s in politics in the first place,” said Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist. “A problem for Haley is that, at least among Republican base voters, she’s running out of persuadable people.”
He said GOP voters have “made up their mind because of these issues or others and simply aren’t entertaining further offers.”
That political reality confronted Ms. Haley in the wake of Mr. Trump’s record-setting win in the Iowa caucuses and double-digit win in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.
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In both contests, the list of the most pressing issues for voters was similar.
Iowa entrance polls found the economy (38%) was the top issue, followed by immigration (34%) foreign policy (12%) and abortion (11%).
New Hampshire exit polls found 37% said the the economy was top of mind, followed by immigration (30%) foreign policy (15%) and abortion (12%).
Mr. Trump in both states carried over half of the voters who are most concerned with the economy. His dominance was more glaring on immigration.
In the multi-candidate race in Iowa, Mr. Trump secured 64% of voters most concerned with immigration and won a whopping 79% of those voters in his showdown with Ms. Haley in New Hampshire.
Ms. Haley, meanwhile, performed well with voters in Iowa and New Hampshire who are most concerned about foreign policy and abortion.
But the problem facing Ms. Haley is those voters made up only about a quarter of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire, whereas voters most concerned with the economy and immigration made up roughly seven in 10 voters in those contests.
Mr. Jennings attributed some of this issue-oriented support for Mr. Trump to Republicans believing the ex-president’s term was “short-circuited unfairly by Democrats who hounded him with BS investigations” and that he continues to be treated unfairly.
Whatever the case, Mr. Trump has kept the economy and immigration front and center in his campaign.
He boasts that the pre-COVID-19 economy was roaring on his watch thanks to a combination of passing tax cuts, expanding domestic energy production, slicing federal regulations and overhauling trade deals.
The U.S.-Mexico border also was as secure as it has ever been, he reminds voters.
Looking to take some air out of his balloon, Ms. Haley has criticized Mr. Trump for backing too much federal spending and for increasing the national debt. She also has dinged him for not following through on all his border promises.
But overall, she has struggled to counter Mr. Trump’s message — partly because she has embraced large chunks of the Trump economic and immigration agenda.
As a result, she has tried to woo voters by telling voters chaos follows Mr. Trump, questioning his mental fitness for the job, and warning that his political brand scares away the independent and moderate voters he needs to defeat President Biden in November.
“There are some serious issues, the last thing we need to talk about is how disgruntled he is, or how vengeful he is,” Ms. Haley said Friday on Fox News. “We have to start talking about solutions and how we are going to get America back on track.”
• Seth McLaughlin can be reached at smclaughlin@washingtontimes.com.
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