Donald Trump’s overwhelming victory in the Georgia Republican primary Tuesday locked up the 2024 GOP nomination for him, but the state’s results contained a potential warning for his campaign: Nikki Haley received more than 77,000 votes despite suspending her campaign last week.
While many of those who backed the former South Carolina governor voted early, almost 20,000 of her votes came from those casting their ballots on Election Day, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, suggesting that many simply voted for Haley to protest against the former president’s re-election bid.
The particularly sobering thought for Trump comes when the apparent protest is put in the context of his previous performance in the key swing state. In the 2020 presidential election, he lost Georgia to Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes. Even Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who officially ended his 2024 campaign back in January, managed to get more than 7,400 votes in Tuesday’s primary.
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Haley’s strongest support came in Atlanta metropolitan areas, attracting about 40 percent of the vote in DeKalb County and 38 percent in Fulton County—the most populous county in Georgia. It’s not certain that those who supported the former U.N. ambassador will ultimately choose to back Trump, who may yet have more work to do to win over more moderate conservatives to win November.
Biden, who also became his party’s presumptive nominee Tuesday, has also had to navigate the Democratic primaries amid a separate protest vote campaign against his support for Israel during the war in Gaza.
“It is my great honor to be representing the Republican Party as its Presidential Nominee,” Trump posted on Truth Social Tuesday. “Our Party is UNITED and STRONG, and fully understands that we are running against the Worst, Most Incompetent, Corrupt, and Destructive President in the History of the United States.”
Read it at Politico
