Is Nikki Haley a creation of the Washington establishment and its consultant class, a regime-picked candidate being groomed as a possible replacement for Biden — as Tucker Carlson suggested last week — or does she really have broad electoral appeal?
One curious argument going around for the latter view is that a surprising number of Democrats and independents say they’re planning to vote for Haley in upcoming primaries. We already saw this last Monday at the Iowa caucuses, where almost half of Haley’s supporters — 43 percent — said they’d vote for Joe Biden over Donald Trump.
In one Iowa precinct, so many Democrats showed up and requested forms to change their party affiliation so they could participate in the caucus and vote for Haley, they ran out of forms.
CBS News’ @tonydokoupil reports from a precinct in Johnston, Iowa, where some registered Democrats filled out forms to switch to the Republican Party to participate in the caucus: “They ran out of those forms.”
“This room was in favor of Nikki Haley.” pic.twitter.com/BapNjVGxdh
— CBS News (@CBSNews) January 16, 2024
It’s shaping up to be the same story in New Hampshire, which holds its primary on Tuesday. New Hampshire has an open primary, meaning independents or unaffiliated voters (who make up 40 percent of all registered voters in the state) can cast ballots in the GOP primary election. Because the Democrat Party isn’t holding a primary, and because New Hampshire voters had until Oct. 6 to change party registration, a lot of Democrats
