Haley Harris supporters have launched a new campaign urging more than 77,000 of Nikki Haley's supporters in Wisconsin to vote for Vice President Kamala Harris in November's presidential election, drawing the ire of a former Republican presidential candidate who issued a cease and desist letter to them.
In a statement, Haley, the former U.N. ambassador, told Fox News Digital: “Kamala Harris and I are polar opposites on every issue, and any attempt to use my name to support her or her policies is deceptive and wrong. I support Donald Trump because he understands what it takes to make America strong, secure and prosperous.”
Haley's campaign law firm sent a letter to the Haley Harris Supporters PAC asking it to refrain from using Haley's name to suggest she endorses Harris for the presidency.
According to the Haley Harris Supporters website, more than 4.4 million people voted for Nikki Haley in the 2024 presidential primary. If enough Republican primary voters vote for Harris, she could win the presidential election. Craig Snyder, president of the Haley Harris Supporters Association and former chief of staff to the late Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), believes Haley supporters could play a crucial role in battleground states.
“In a close battleground like Wisconsin, even a significant number of these voters who have already made their voices clear that they do not support Trump could easily decide the outcome of the election if they join a coalition that spans the entire American political spectrum, from Dick Cheney, who is currently behind the vice president, to Bernie Sanders,” Snyder told Fox News Digital.
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Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as ambassador to the United Nations under President Trump, had already withdrawn from the Republican primary in Wisconsin in April, but she received 76,841 votes. Although Haley lost in a landslide victory to the former president, who received more than 400,000 more votes than Trump, Haley's supporters could be key to determining the outcome of the election in Wisconsin.
President Biden won Wisconsin in 2020 by a narrow margin of 49.45% to 48.83%, a margin of just 0.62 percentage points. Biden received 1,630,673 votes to Trump's 1,610,650, a margin of just over 20,000 votes. In 2016, Trump narrowly won the state by 23,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton.
Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at the Ketagalan Forum on Indo-Pacific Security in Taipei, Taiwan, on August 21, 2024. (Daniel Chen/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Haley's supporters in the primary were mostly college-educated, independent-leaning Republicans, and her supporters of Harris will likely target mostly center-right and moderate voters in key battleground states, including Wisconsin, through social media and in-person voter outreach.
The group specifically seeks to educate voters about what Snyder calls Harris' centrist record, highlighting her years of experience as a “no-nonsense prosecutor” who has steered the Biden administration to the center on issues ranging from executive orders to end abuses of the asylum system to record oil drilling permits to federal support for the hiring of 100,000 additional police officers.
“We will be communicating directly with Haley's supporters and other moderate voters in Wisconsin through digital advertising, text messages and direct mail. While Governor Haley made the decision to support Trump for personal reasons, independent-minded voters will decide for themselves what is best for our country,” Snyder said.
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Haley dropped out of the Republican presidential race in April but said she would ultimately vote for Trump, leading the GOP to round up the former president as its nominee. Haley formally endorsed Trump during a speech at the Republican National Convention in July, saying she was a “strong supporter of Trump” and that “you don't have to agree with him 100% to vote for him.”
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks on Labor Day at Northwestern High School in Detroit, Michigan, on September 2, 2024. (Sarah Rice for The Washington Post via Getty Images)
William Howell, a professor at the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, told Fox News Digital that he voted for Haley in the primary not because he was enthusiastic about her candidacy, but because he was disappointed with the direction of the Republican Party.
“Then their vote may still be undetermined,” Howell said.
Howell believes Haley voters who support Harris can have a real impact if they put in the effort.
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“You don't need to change a lot of people's minds to have a significant impact in this election, especially if you can target a small number of people who are still undecided in one of the few battleground states. Haley's supporters in Wisconsin may be that demographic.”
Prior to Biden's disastrous performance in the June 27 debate that ultimately led to him withdrawing from the presidential race, Snyder led the Haley Biden Campaign, saying in a July press statement that “many of us strongly believed that the country needed to move on from Donald Trump.”
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A CNN poll conducted by SSRS from August 23-29 had Harris leading Trump 50% to 44%. Other recent polls in Wisconsin have shown a closer race, with both Harris and Trump needing to win Wisconsin to win the White House.
