INDIANAPOLIS (AP) 鈥 The ghost of Nikki Haley鈥檚 presidential campaign is ringing up significant support in state primaries despite her withdrawal from the race in March shortly before Donald Trump had clinched the Republican nomination.
The backing for Haley 鈥 most recently in Indiana, where she grabbed on Tuesday 鈥 signals persistent discontent among party voters with the former president. He is racking up primary victories even as he has been spending much of his time recently in a involving hush money payments to a porn actor.
Haley, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador who qualified for the Indiana ballot before she ended her campaign two months ago, has not endorsed Trump.
A Haley campaign adviser did not immediately return a message seeking comment on the results.
Indiana Democrats did not have the option to vote 鈥 鈥 in their party primary. Unease about President Joe Biden鈥檚 handling of the Israel-Hamas war has sparked a protest vote movement in some states, raising similar questions about the strength of his support in November.
Haley鈥檚 support was largest in Indiana鈥檚 urban and suburban counties. She won 35% of the vote in Indianapolis鈥檚 Marion County and more than one-third of the vote in suburban Hamilton County. As in other states, she did best in the most Democratic areas of the state.
The exception was Lake County, home to Gary, just south of Chicago. Haley won only 14% of the vote in Lake County.
Biden鈥檚 campaign attributed Haley鈥檚 Indiana showing to Trump鈥檚 trouble in suburbs and cited similar primary numbers in swing states such as Georgia, Michigan and Pennsylvania. The president has made an open appeal to Haley supporters to back him in November.
The Trump campaign claimed without evidence that Haley鈥檚 support came from Democrats, adding that he would carry Indiana in November, as in 2016 and 2020.
Two weeks ago in Pennsylvania, Haley received nearly She earned similar support in just weeks after her exit.
Trump, who won every Indiana county, brushed off Haley's support in an interview Tuesday with of Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
鈥淎ll of those people are going to come to me,鈥 he said.
In late January, Trump said prematurely that Haley did not have enough signatures to make Indiana鈥檚 primary ballot. While Haley did get the minimum 500 signatures needed in each congressional district to make the ballot, the margin was razor thin in the 7th District, which includes Indianapolis.
Haley鈥檚 campaign was largely absent from the state even while she was in the race.
Indiana, with its 11 electoral votes, is far from the swing state that Pennsylvania is. Trump won Indiana by 16 percentage points in 2020.
Nonetheless, Haley's support from 1 in 5 Republican voters raises questions about how they will vote in the fall. Before she dropped out, she took nearly 27% of votes in . She received 13% of the GOP vote shortly after her exit.
Haley, who ended her campaign after losses to Trump across almost all Super Tuesday states in early March, recently announced she was joining the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. In her farewell speech a day after Trump鈥檚 big night, Haley declined to directly endorse him. She on Trump to win the support of the moderate Republicans and independent voters who had supported her.
鈥淚t is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him. And I hope he does that,鈥 she said. 鈥淎t its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.鈥
Trump had been withering in his criticism of Haley, calling her 鈥淏irdbrain鈥 in speeches to his supporters and questioning her decision to stay in the race.
Just before Super Tuesday, she no longer felt bound by a pledge that required all GOP contenders to support the party鈥檚 eventual nominee in order to participate in the primary debates.
She has said little publicly but has continued to utilize her email outreach, via her Stand for America PAC, sending out updates on her Hudson appointment, as well as the return of her husband, Michael, from a South Carolina Army 香港六合彩挂牌资料 Guard deployment that saw him stationed in African during a large portion of her primary campaign.
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Associated Press writer Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
