Former Republican presidential candidate Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) predicted who will secure the 2024 GOP nominee in the race to the White House on Wednesday.
Speaking with reporters, DeSantis said there is “no question” that former President Trump will sail to victory against Republican candidate Nikki Haley (R-S.C.).
On Thursday, the two Republican opponents will battle it out in South Carolina, where Trump leads Haley in almost all polls— especially in the Palmetto State.
DeSantis, who dropped out of the race last month, said that it was clear to him Haley does not have support from a majority of the Republican Party, adding that her strategy of trying to appeal to people who aren’t part of a conservative base for a primary doesn’t work in the long run.
“Eighty-five percent of the registered Republicans voted for either Trump or me, effectively…so that’s just a big conservative base, right? To try to appeal to people who aren’t a part of that base for a primary — I just didn’t understand that,” DeSantis said. “It was clear to me after…Iowa that she just didn’t have support amongst Republicans, and I’ve never seen anyone win a Republican nomination by focusing on non-Republican voters. It just doesn’t work.”
The governor added that it’s obvious that Trump will win South Carolina because he appeals to core Republicans in a way that Haley doesn’t.
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DeSantis continued questioning Haley’s approach of attracting non-conservative voters in open primary states, saying she has no path to run for president given her campaign.
Despite holding a 23-point advantage over Haley in South Carolina, she has refused to drop out, saying she is not going anywhere.
This week, an Emerson College Polling/The Hill poll found that 58 percent of likely South Carolina Republican primary voters support Trump, while only 35 percent said the same about Haley.
When undecided voters were asked to pick a candidate, 61 percent chose Trump, while 39 percent chose Haley.
In January, moments after announcing his resignation from the 2024 race, DeSantis made it clear he would support Trump for the nominee and not Haley.
“He has my endorsement because we can’t go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear — a repackaged form of warmed-over corporatism — that Nikki Haley represents,” DeSantis said at the time.
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