There are those Republican voters who will “crawl over glass” to vote for former President Donald Trump, and then there are those who are fundamentally opposed to him, according to one North Carolina political analyst.
However, in North Carolina, which holds its Republican presidential primary with 14 other states on March 5, “it’s Trump country,” Andy Jackson told The Epoch Times.
Mr. Jackson is the director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, an independent research institute in North Carolina that examines issues of freedom, personal responsibility, and limited constitutional government.
“It’s either Trump or the warm body that is against Trump,” Mr. Jackson said. “Trump supporters think he speaks to their concerns, such as the issues at the border. They look at his putting conservatives on the Supreme Court. Then, there are the people who think Trump is bad for the country and the party.”
But it’s been made clear that the latter are in the minority, he said, which is about a third of Republicans.
“The big question is, what are those folks going to do in November?” he asked.
Much of the opposition to President Trump, he said, is based on personal offenses in the way he conducts himself despite his conservative policies.
Whether those Republican voters opposed to President Trump turn to President Joe Biden or find a third-party candidate, there will still be a “kumbaya moment” once the primaries are over in which most will stand behind the winner of the primaries to focus on beating the Democrats.
It played out the same way with the 2008 Democratic primaries when then-Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois faced off with then-Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, which Mr. Jackson called “a bitter, bitter election.”
“But they came together in the end because that’s what parties do,” he said.
When asked by NBC News’ Kristen Welker if she saw Super Tuesday as her “last stand,” she answered that she’s “hoping for a good competitive showing.”
“That’s always been the case in every step is can we continue to stay competitive,” she said. “When 70 percent of Americans say they don’t want Donald Trump or Joe Biden, you keep going to make sure people have a choice. That’s what this is all about.”
She said President Trump was moving the Republican Party away from small government, less spending, and “peace through strength,” and into isolation from the American people.
“This is about our kids and other people’s grandkids,” she said. “They need to know that the American dream is still there for them.”
‘Earned Media’
What kills campaigns is failure to secure early wins, which leads to the money “drying up,” Mr. Jackson said.“Haley, so far, is still taking in enough donations to keep the plane in the air, and as long as she’s doing that—other than the embarrassment factor—there’s not a huge incentive for her to stop,” he said. “She’s a candidate, a candidate who is consistently losing, but also consistently overperforming in her poll numbers, picking up a few delegates here and there.”
President Trump, Mr. Jackson said, was “majorly outspent in both of his elections.”
“There are some donors who are simply not going to give to Trump—people who traditionally will give to whomever the Republican nominee is,” Mr. Jackson said. “I think you still have people who are functionally institutional donors in that they will still donate to whomever the Republican nominee is.”
The Trump campaign, he said, has always been driven by “earned media,” or content such as news articles published by a third party without his campaign having to finance it.
“That’s the reason he does all of these rallies,” Mr. Jackson said. “The rallies fire up the base, but they’re really there to get earned media to get people talking about Donald Trump. That still requires money, but not as much money as running tons of ads, so he’s always run with a comparatively cash-strapped campaign. I’m sure they would rather have an additional $100 [million] to $200 million than they otherwise would have by having all of the donors switch over, but it’s not central to their campaign.”
‘She’s Going to Lose’
As of March 4, Ms. Haley has 43 delegates, while President Trump leads with 244 delegates.In Washington D.C., she won 62.8 percent of the vote to President Trump’s 33.3 percent, a win which brought her 19 delegates.
Still, Mr. Jackson said, Ms. Haley has no realistic chance of winning, “barring some major catastrophe in the Trump campaign.”
It’s possible, he said, that she’s building a foundation for a 2028 campaign.
As for the North Carolina primary, “she’s going to lose, and she’s going to lose handily,” he said.
“If I were to pull out a crystal ball I would say he’s going to double her totals here,” he said. “North Carolina has pretty much been Trump country for a while now, and I don’t see her making progress here.”
There was a similar situation in 2016 when it was down to President Trump, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), and Sen. Mark Rubio (R-Fla.).
No Labels
Ms. Haley has rebuffed any suggestions that she join a third-party ticket, such as the “unity ticket” being considered by the centrist No Labels group.Former North Carolina Republican Gov. Pat McCrory is one of the four co-chairs of No Labels.
Mr. McCrory’s star had fallen considerably in North Carolina when he lost in the 2022 Republican primary to Sen. Ted Budd by approximately 35 percentage points, Mr. Jackson said.
“I think it left a bitter taste in his mouth, so it makes sense,” he said. “If he sees himself as a moderate, why not go to No Labels? The question is, what’s going to happen with No Labels after 2024? They’ve set themselves up as a way to stop Trump, essentially, and there’s debate over whether a third-party candidate will hurt Trump or Biden more.”
For Mr. McCrory, it could be that he truly believes advocating for a third-party candidate is a better way. However, for North Carolinians, President Trump is the only path forward, Mr. Jackson said.
Veterans for Nikki NC
However, for veterans such as Frank Williams, chair of Veterans for Nikki NC, President Trump is not a viable option.Registered unaffiliated, he told The Epoch Times that he leans conservative.
“When I look at Nikki, I see her as a strong Tea Party conservative,” Mr. Williams said. “A lot of my friends who are Republican—maybe more conservative than I—will refer to her as a RINO or moderate, but if you look at her record, she’s a Tea Party conservative.”
Mr. Williams said Ms. Haley has promised to reduce the deficit, which he said President Trump increased by $8 trillion.
She advocates for a strong military, heralded by President Ronald Reagan as the way to bring about “peace through strength.”
“Some people criticize her because they say she’s going to take us to war,” Mr. Williams said. “Conservatives want a strong military to prevent war, and that’s what she wants to do, not the opposite. We don’t want war, and as a veteran, I can tell you we are the first ones to get killed when you go to war, so that’s not what we want.”
In addition, he said, Ms. Haley supports “friends and allies,” while President Trump has created only tension.
“Trump threatens and rejects people,” Mr. Williams said. “As an example, he recently said anyone who supports Nikki is barred from MAGA. He’s pushing people away while she’s trying to bring people in.”
President Trump denounced the claim, calling it a “totally false” accusation from a “terrible magazine.”
“I would be willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes,” President Trump said. “There is nobody that respects them more. No animal—nobody—what animal would say such a thing?”
Even though the allegation arose from unnamed sources, Mr. Williams said he and other veterans are bothered by the alleged statements.
On that same note, he said, Democrats respect Ms. Haley, which could open the door for less divisiveness between parties.
‘We’ll Have to Take a Hard Look’
As a 76-year-old veteran, Mr. Williams said he’s not one to discriminate against Presidents Trump and Biden’s ages, but neither are “at the top of their game.”“It’s clear that Biden is not, and I see streaks of me in Trump, who’s starting to forget things,” he said. “And in this country, we have a lot of things to fix. We need somebody who is going to give us eight years and not the four years to which Biden and Trump are restricted.”
If she were to drop out of the race in the next few weeks, Mr. Williams said members of Veterans for Nikki NC “will have to make their own decisions” on whether to throw their support behind President Trump or a third-party candidate.
“The reality is, if the choices we are given are between Trump and Biden—which 70 percent of Americans don’t want—we'll have to take a hard look at those options,” he said.
