Donald Trump has won the first two contests on the way to winning the Republican presidential nomination, but his opponents within the party aren't ready to give up their fight to deprive him of a chance for re-election.
Polls and exit surveys from both Iowa and New Hampshire show a substantial portion of GOP voters cast ballots against the ex-president and would not consider voting for him in November, and anti-Trump Republicans believe there's still a chance to prevent him from sewing up the nomination, reported Politico.
“It was definitely not a good night for Donald Trump,” said GOP strategist Mike Madrid, a co-founder of the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “Looking at these numbers and Trump’s general approval [ratings] amongst Republicans and also election results from the last three elections, they are all pointing in a direction of getting worse for Trump — not better."
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Data from those two early primary states show strong resistance to Trump among undeclared voters, and many Haley voters said they would back President Joe Biden if Trump won the GOP nomination.
“There’s tons and tons of ammunition for her to make the case that [Trump] is unfit to be president,” said former U.S. senator Gordon Humphrey of New Hampshire, who left the party after Trump won the nomination in 2016 and supported Haley in his state's primary.
However, for Haley supporters like New Hampshire political consultant Sean Van Anglen, it's probably too late to stop Trump from locking down the nomination, so they're focused on beating him in November while trying to help down-ballot Republicans who could be hurt by the former president standing again at the top of the ticket.
“We need to let the toddler run his temper tantrum out,” Van Anglen said. “Then let the adults come back into the room and take back control of our party and our country.”
