Biden campaign tries to court Haley supporters, says Trump is driving them away
President Biden’s reelection campaign argued in a new memo on Wednesday that former President Trump is driving away Republican Nikki Haley voters, building on the president’s plea that there is a place in his campaign for her supporters.
First shared exclusively with The Hill, the memo from Biden communications director Michael Tyler said that “Trump is not seeking Haley’s voters, he is driving them away,” just hours after Haley dropped out of the race.
It argues that Trump faces a divided Republican party and will not be able to build a coalition come November. Trump on Wednesday bashed Haley as she dropped out of the GOP presidential race but encouraged her supporters to back his campaign.
Biden earlier on Wednesday said while there are policy disagreements between his campaign and those who supported Haley, they agree on some “fundamental issues,” such as preserving democracy.
“A winning presidential candidate looks to build bridges and expand beyond their base — to attract the critical suburban, independent, and moderate voters that decide elections. Not Trump. He spent the morning mocking Haley and her voters, following her exit from the race,” Tyler wrote.
The Biden campaign’s attempt to appeal to Haley voters in the memo argues that Trump is driving her voters away through “pandering to dictators like Vladimir Putin” and “throwing our NATO allies under the bus.”
“The voters who are going to determine this election rejected him and his candidates in 2020, 2022, 2023, and now 2024. Instead of learning from those elections, he is driving these same suburban, moderate, and independent voters away with his divisive rhetoric and his extreme Project 2025 agenda to ban abortion, restrict birth control, repeal the Affordable Care Act, and take our country backwards,” Tyler said.
Tyler also argued that Trump, instead of courting Haley voters, is “actively attacking and demeaning them” through threats to blacklist her supporters, and he said that the former president is weak on independents and moderates because of his stance against abortion rights, among other issues.
He also outlined some comments from Haley supporters vowing not to support Trump, sharing a clip from MSNBC that includes voters saying they would vote for Biden over Trump.