In a Zoom call yesterday, the Biden-Harris campaign encouraged voters backing Nikki "Birdbrain" Haley to join their effort. While Haley announced earlier this week that she would be voting for the Malignant Loser / Orange Turd, many of her voters are not willing to follow her lead. From CNN:
"The meeting was part of an ongoing effort by the Biden campaign to reach out to Haley voters. It was organized by the Haley Voters Working Group.
Conservative Haley backers from Virginia, Massachusetts, Vermont, California, Florida, Georgia, Arizona and North Carolina joined the call, including members of Haley’s former state leadership teams and the organization Women for Nikki.
The call, which one source characterized as a constructive initial step, began with a Q&A session for about 35 minutes with the Biden campaign official, who wanted to know which policy issues were most important to the Haley supporters. Another source confirmed that the official on the call was Juan Peñalosa, the deputy political director for President Joe Biden’s campaign.
After Peñalosa left the call, the source said the conversation continued among the group, with a “few moments of mourning” over Haley’s decision to back Trump along with a recognition that it wasn’t a full-throated endorsement."
Among the issues raised by the group were southern border security, and the wars in Ukraine and Gaza. In seemed clear that among this group, the sentiment was not to follow Haley... for now:
"Robert Schwartz, the executive director of the Haley Voters Working Group, said that despite the disappointment over the former South Carolina governor saying she would vote for Trump, there was an understanding that this was a choice she was likely to make.
'A lot of these people in this group are big supporters of Nikki Haley and want to support her in 2028,' he said. 'They’re legit Republicans and conservatives, and so they don’t want to see Trump destroy the party.' [snip]
'While Trump has done absolutely nothing to gain the support of Haley voters and takes them for granted, Biden and his campaign are actively reaching out to build a coalition of Republicans and they know they need to earn their vote. We welcome their initial engagements and know they plan to do much more in the coming months,' he said." (our emphasis)
We hope the engagement with the Haley voters is productive and not a waste of time. There's the sense that Haley was the only vessel for "never Trump" Republican voters this cycle. But the Malignant Loser is already making nice with "Birdbrain" and we know how cynically opportunistic she is. If she or her supporters believe, if elected in 2024, the Malignant Loser won't try to stay in office beyond that, well, they're also seriously naive and delusional, too.
