Haley says she will vote for Trump over Biden

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley said on Wednesday that she’ll vote for former President Trump over President Biden this fall.  

“As a voter, I put my priorities on a president who’s going to have the backs of our allies and hold our enemies to account, who would secure the border, no more excuses,” Haley, the former president’s ex-rival in the Republican presidential race, said at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank. “A president who would support capitalism and freedom, a president who understands we need less debt not more debt.”

“Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I’ve made that clear, many, many times. But Biden has been a catastrophe. So, I will be voting for Trump,” she said.

Haley was the last major candidate standing between Trump and the Republican nomination when she dropped out of the contest in March.

“Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech. Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they’re just going to be with him,” Haley added. “And I genuinely hope he does that.”

Haley’s remarks at the institute come as she continues to be a significant presence in Republican presidential primary results, despite her exit from the race, as some in the GOP voice their frustration with Trump through protest votes. 

Haley picked up 20 percent of the vote in Maryland’s GOP primary last week, and 18 percent in Nebraska. The week before that, Haley won nearly 22 percent of the vote in Indiana’s Republican primary. Earlier this year, she also received over 100,000 votes in each of the two key battleground states of Arizona and Pennsylvania. 

Trump has brushed off the results, insisting Haley’s supporters will flock to him in the general election against Biden.  

“She got very few voters,” Trump said earlier this month. “And those voters are all coming to me, and you may have a lot of Democrats in there because they have a very tricky little system. But those voters are coming to me.”

Across the aisle, Biden’s campaign has also made a move for Haley voters disillusioned with the former president’s bid.  

“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” Biden said in March. “I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign.” 

Biden-Harris communications director Michael Tyler said after Haley’s announcement that “nothing has changed” for the Republican voters who continue to cast primary protest votes “and care deeply about the future of our democracy, standing strong with our allies against foreign adversaries, and working across the aisle to get things done for the American people – while also rejecting the chaos, division and violence that Donald Trump embodies.”

Haley joined the Hudson Institute as its Walter P. Stern chair in April.The post will help the former South Carolina governor maintain a notable profile ahead of the 2028 GOP presidential primary, for which she has repeatedly been floated.