Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley said Wednesday she will be voting for former president Donald Trump in November and urged him to make an appeal to voters who supported her in the Republican primary.
“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,” Haley said during a discussion on foreign policy at the Hudson Institute, her first public appearance since ending her presidential bid in March.
“Trump has not been perfect on these policies. I’ve made that clear many, many times,” she added. “But Biden has been a catastrophe. So I will be voting for Trump.”
Still, she once again called on Trump to prioritize appealing to her supporters.
“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,” she said. “And I genuinely hope he does.”
Upon dropping out of the race in March, Haley declined to endorse Trump and said it would be on the former president to “earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him, and I hope he does that.”
“At its best, politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people. This is now his time for choosing,” Haley said, an apparent reference to Trump’s having said he would “permanently” ban anyone who donated to Haley from the MAGA camp.
However, shortly thereafter, when he was asked about attempts to unify the party and bring more moderate voters into the MAGA fold, Trump insisted Haley’s voters would join but raised doubts that he needed them.
“They’re going to all vote for me again,” Trump told reporters. “I’m not sure we need too many.”
President Biden also issued an appeal to Haley’s voters. “Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign,” he said at the time.
Haley’s latest comments come less than two weeks after Trump said she is not on his shortlist of vice presidential contenders, despite recent media reporting to the contrary.
“Nikki Haley is not under consideration for the V.P. slot, but I wish her well!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
Axios reported that Haley is “under active consideration” by team Trump to serve as the former president’s running mate.
“The GOP rivals’ relationship remains chilly, but Trump could pick Haley if he were convinced she’d help him win the presidency, avoid a potential prison sentence and cover tens of millions in legal bills if he loses,” the report indicated.
The report laid out several reasons Trump could turn to Haley as a potential running mate, including her strength with donors who are wary of Trump and her popularity with college-educated Republicans who supported her in the primary.
Before Haley dropped out of the race, she indicated the prospect of her serving as Trump’s VP was “off the table.” Trump, for his part, said at that time that he would not pick Haley. “She is OK, but she is not presidential timber. And when I say that, that probably means she is not going to be chosen as the vice president.”