Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is blasting neoconservative presidential candidate Nikki Haley for relying on Democrats changing their vote to participate in the Iowa caucuses.
During his CNN town hall in New Hampshire Tuesday night, DeSantis pointed out that Haley does not have Republican backing to make it in the general election.
“So she was relying on her support for a lot of these Democrats changing their registration on the day of the caucus. And here’s the thing — in Florida, I won a lot more Democrats than previous governors have been able to do,” DeSantis said.
“I think it’s great in a general election to build a big tent, but to win a Republican primary, you can’t rely on Democrats coming in and changing their registration. You got to be able to win core Republicans. You got to be able to win conservatives, and she cannot do that,” DeSantis continued. Ron DeSantis nails it.
Nikki Haley isn’t capable of winning the nomination because it’s impossible for her to build the coalition necessary to win.
She relied on Democrats to show up in order to finish closer DeSantis than to Vivek.
That’s the reality.
pic.twitter.com/oYyFIIRXzF
— Dustin Grage 🐊 (@GrageDustin) January 17, 2024
Haley is seemingly more popular with Democrats and the media class than with actual Republican voters.
A poll conducted ahead of the Iowa caucuses by NBC News, the Des Moines Register, and Iowa pollster Selzer & Co. found that Haley supporters in Iowa are twice as likely to vote for Joe Biden as they are Donald Trump, should she not win the Republican nomination.
Across the board, just 11 percent of Republican caucus-goes said they would flip and vote for Biden if Trump was the nominee. Looking only at Haley supporters, that number jumped to 43 percent.
Just 23 percent of Haley’s supporters said they would vote for Trump over Biden.
In contrast, 64 percent of DeSantis supporters said they would vote for Trump if he is the nominee.
The governor also commented on Haley's claim that the Iowa results made the primary a "two-person race," meaning herself and former President Donald Trump, even though she came in third after DeSantis. Nikki Haley: "Tonight, Iowa made this Republican primary a two person race!"pic.twitter.com/vybpPtemW3
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) January 16, 2024
“She said, and her campaign said that there’s only two tickets out of Iowa, that the top two out of Iowa would be viable, and that she would finish at least second, and then that would be the race,” DeSantis said.
“Well, guess what happened? Even though she spent 100 percent of her money attacking me and not one red cent attacking Donald Trump….I got in second and she did not, and that’s just the reality,” he continued.
