Nikki Haley Hates Her Voters and It’s Weird
She keeps pretending that she’s the choice of True Republicans, when her coalition is made up of Dems, independents, Never Trumpers, and “the elites.”
Last night Tim Miller, Joe Perticone, and Bill Kristol joined me to talk about the Bulwark Podcast, the Three Johns, Cocaine Mitch, and other stuff. The show is here.
1. The Trouble with Nikki
You know the old adage about dancing with the one that brung you?
Politicians live by that rule. They may set out to capture one demographic, but find that they do better with another. And so they’ll shift their pitch and get right with the people who are actually voting for them.1
Nikki Haley is living by the opposite ethos: She’s constantly dissing her actual voters and pretending that her “real” supporters are the people lining up to vote for Trump.
You saw that Nikki Haley didn’t do so hot in Michigan this week, yes? That’s because she wasn’t able to turn Democrats and Independents out to vote for her When only Republicans vote, Haley lives around the 25 percent mark.
Her best showings—in New Hampshire and South Carolina—are powered by independents and crossover Democrats. When you look at the exit polling you see that she does best with moderates, urbanites, and people with college or graduate degrees.
And yet Haley spends most of her time trashing this voting coalition. She’s not a Never Trumper! She hates the Democrats! She’s fighting against the elites in her high heels because it hurts more when you curb-stomp the socialists or whatever!
Haley does this weird thing where she pretends that her real support comes from True American MAGA types.
Here was Haley in New Hampshire in January:
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