It looks like GOP presidential hopeful Nikki Haley has a Rocky complex.
The iconic fictional boxer had a knack for taking a brutal beating before bouncing back late in the fight to win the match.
But the race for the Republican presidential nomination isn’t a movie. It’s real. It may be time for Haley to acknowledge reality and throw in the towel.
For starters, Haley was just embarrassed in Nevada’s GOP presidential primary. Voters resoundingly picked the “none of these candidates” option on the ballot over Haley.
Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot in the Tuesday primary, which won’t award any delegates to the Republican convention. He will instead be participating in Nevada’s caucuses on Thursday, which will award delegates.
Haley, however, was on the ballot — and “none of these candidates” got double the amount of votes.
If that’s not bad enough, a Morning Consult poll released Wednesday showed Trump with a 37-point lead over Haley in her home state of South Carolina. That hurts.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg that is almost sure to sink Haley’s ship.
The poll strongly suggests things will only get worse for her should she continue to Super Tuesday on March 5. Trump’s lead in all eight Super Tuesday states is astounding.
On one end of the spectrum, Trump holds leads of 41 points and 54 points in Massachusetts and North Carolina, respectively. On the other end, there’s Alabama, where Trump has a 75-point lead.
NEW: Trump leads Haley 68% to 31% among potential South Carolina primary voters, according to @MorningConsult surveys conducted Jan. 23-Feb 4.
Our state-level tracking shows her trailing by larger margins in the largest Super Tuesday states.https://t.co/bAJz0duQB0 pic.twitter.com/opscnHuFNC
— Cameron Easley (@cameron_easley) February 7, 2024
In later primaries in states such as Arizona, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia and Ohio, at least three-quarters of potential Republican voters are planning to vote for Trump.
Polls may be just a snapshot in time, but the writing is on the wall and Haley would do herself good to read it.
It is highly unlikely that even Rocky could stage a comeback with numbers like this. Haley should drop out of the fight now to save face — before there’s nothing left to save.
The South Carolina poll was conducted from Jan. 23 to Feb. 4 among 414 registered voters who said they planned to vote in South Carolina’s GOP primary. The margin of error was +/- 5 percentage points.
The other polls were conducted from Jan. 23 to Feb. 4 among at least 208 registered voters who said they planned to vote in their state’s Republican primary. The margin of error was +/- 3 to 7 percentage points.
