Eastern EyeBy: Eastern Eye
US PRESIDENT Joe Biden’s re-election campaign is appealing directly to supporters of former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who was the last major opponent to Donald Trump before she withdrew from the race last month.
“Nikki Haley voters, Donald Trump doesn’t want your vote,” Biden said in a social media post at the end of March, that included a link to a new ad from his campaign. “I want to be clear: There is a place for you in my campaign.”
The ad shows video clips of Trump blasting Haley as “birdbrain” and dismissing her candidacy.
“She’s gone crazy. She’s a very angry person,” Trump, 77, is heard saying during the 30-second commercial, punctuated with social media posts in which the Republican claims he “will not accept” her supporters and threatens to kick them out of his political movement.
A source close to Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations when Trump was president, said neither the Biden nor Trump campaigns had reached out to her about gaining the support of the people who voted for her.
A Trump representative did not respond to a request for comment.
Haley stuck with her presidential race when other Trump challengers had dropped out, promising policies that appealed to Republicans who had rejected Trump.
Almost 570,000 voters in three key battleground states – Nevada, North Carolina, and Michigan – voted for Haley in the Republican nominating contest, a small but potentially significant group in races that have been decided by tiny margins in recent elections.
Many Haley voters have wondered if they still have a place in the Republican Party, which has coalesced around Trump, despite his repeated lies about having won the 2020 election against Biden, and the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol.
Biden, 81, will need as much support as he can muster. He has faced concerns about his age and fitness for a second four-year term. Recent Reuters/ Ipsos polls show his approval rating at 40 per cent and in a tight race with Trump, 77, ahead of the November 5 election.
Biden has built up a campaign war chest in excess of $70 million ahead of November’s rematch with Trump, more than doubling his predecessor’s fundraising haul and giving allies more latitude to spend big on TV advertising.
His re-election campaign announced last Saturday (6) that it raised over $187 million in the first quarter 2024, almost double what it took in during the previous quarter.
In March alone, when Biden clinched the Democratic Party’s nomination, the campaign raised more than $90m, up from over $53m the previous month. The team also reported $192m in cash on hand, which it said was the highest total amassed by any Democratic candidate in history at this point in the cycle.
Biden’s campaign has been pulling in more money ahead
