The red flags in Trump’s victory include Republicans and independents saying they will never vote for him
Ask Donald Trump’s supporters in New Hampshire about their biggest hesitation in voting for the former president and the answer is clear: nothing.
Ask people who supported Nikki Haley in the state’s primary for their one-word summary and the answers come out: criminal, liar, democracy, dangerous, dictator…
Trump may have secured victory by a double-digit margin, but New Hampshire’s voter pattern is raising red flags for Republicans looking for a candidate who can topple President Joe Biden in November’s general election.
Exit polls showed that nearly half of all primary voters believed Trump would be unfit to serve as president if convicted of a crime in any of his four criminal cases.
Voters who supported Nikki Haley during the New Hampshire primary had several reasons for not choosing Trump. Liar, criminal, democracy, dictator, they were all words they used
Trump won the New Hampshire primary by double digits, but polls show that while his hold on the party nomination is secure, there are warning signs about the general election.
Last week, a poll in Iowa found that as many as 43 percent of Nikki Haley supporters said they would vote for Biden before Trump in the general election.
Trump also fared less well in New Hampshire, with voters who consider themselves independent, the kind of swing voters who decide tight elections.
And a Daily Mail poll of voters ahead of the primaries found that part of the Republican Party had deep misgivings about Trump, raising questions about whether or not they would participate in the general election if he were the nominee .
JL Partners asked 651 Republican primary voters for their opinions on Trump. Specifically, they were asked what their only hesitation was in voting for him.
The results have been converted into a word cloud. For Trump supporters, it was dominated by the word “nothing.”
But people who support Haley, who represents a more traditionally conservative part of the party, expressed serious concerns about the former president.
James Johnson, co-founder of JL Partners, said the results showed how Trump struggled with independents and moderates, who will be key in November.
“But I think we have to be careful and not put too much faith in a general election of one state’s primary,” he said.
“This was a pretty selective and engaged electorate, even among blacks.”
Trump can count on a solid support base that will vote for him without hesitation. But is that enough to build the kind of broad coalition that may be needed to defeat Joe Biden?
Joe Biden said Tuesday night that the primaries were over and Trump was the nominee. His campaign seems to think there is a candidate he can beat in November
a CNN exit poll found that 42 percent of voters thought Trump would be unfit for the presidency if he were convicted of a crime in one of the four criminal trials he faces. In the exit poll, CBS News had a 47-person share.
CNN also asked voters whether they would be satisfied with Trump as the Republican Party’s candidate. About 61 percent said yes, but 38 percent said they would not be happy if he were the candidate to face Biden.
Eric Levine, a Haley donor, said Trump’s victory Tuesday was not as big as polls had predicted of 20 points.
“The results show he’s struggling with the independents you need in November,” he said. “Nikki Haley is still the best person to beat Joe Biden.”
After losing Iowa in a landslide and New Hampshire, where she might have had the best chance to deliver a blow to Trump, Haley’s path to the nomination seems all but impossible.
Donors must now consider whether to continue paying campaign staff salaries for a full month before the next key contest in South Carolina, where polls show her trailing the frontrunner by 30 points.
Former South Carolinian Nikki Haley fared better than the 20-point defeat than some New Hampshire polls predicted, but she faces a nearly impossible path to the nomination. Her voters said Tuesday’s results strengthened their argument that she would do better against Biden
Still, she said Tuesday night that she would continue to fight.
‘This race is far from over. There are still dozens of states to go,” she told Haley supporters, as audience members responded with chants of, “It’s not over yet!”
The Democrats certainly seem to think they have the best candidate to beat.
Biden made a statement saying Trump was now the nominee.
‘And my message to the country is that the stakes could not be higher. Our democracy. Our personal freedoms – from the right to choose to the right to vote… are all at stake.”