GOP Rivals Prioritize Internal Feuds Over Battling Former President Trump
Republican contenders for the 2024 presidential race are embroiled in internal conflicts and failing to address critical issues, allowing Donald Trump to remain a dominant force Time is ticking for them to unite and emerge as a strong alternative
The Republican presidential candidates are running out of time to oust Donald Trump as the party's 2024 standard-bearer. A recent poll indicates that Nikki Haley is gaining momentum in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary, but she is frustrated by the television ads aired by groups supporting rival Ron DeSantis during her campaign event in Altoona, Iowa.
"I haven't spoken negatively about anyone," she stated to the audience at the Fireside Grill. "But if you have to deceive to win, then you don't deserve victory."
Haley sharply criticized DeSantis for his stance against offshore drilling as governor and his votes to increase the debt ceiling as a congressman. She continued to express her disapproval of DeSantis on Monday, emphasizing that her remarks were not a one-time occurrence but a permanent part of her campaign speech.
"In the central Iowa city of Nevada, she declared, 'If you punch me, I punch back.' She also accused Ron DeSantis of lying in every one of his commercials.
The recent assaults on DeSantis signal the ongoing competition within the GOP. As the Iowa caucuses draw near and Trump maintains a strong lead in national and early state polls, his opponents are vying to position themselves as the party's sole alternative to the former president. They aim to gain the backing of Republican voters and donors who are looking to shift their support away from Trump."
At campaign stops, in interviews, and in television advertisements, his opponents have chosen to escalate their attacks on each other over the past three days, rather than taking on Trump.
Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis participate in a Republican presidential debate in Miami on November 8, 2023.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Haley responds to DeSantis' accusation of being an establishment candidate as rivalry heats up.
"We've seen this before. It was in 2016," stated Jim Merrill, a Republican strategist based in New Hampshire, referring to Trump's initial presidential campaign.
Polls indicate that each of Trump's opponents has a distinct support base, with DeSantis showing strength in Iowa, Haley gaining traction in New Hampshire, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie also building a following in the same state. However, it remains uncertain whether any of them can challenge and seriously threaten Trump's influence on the party, as his primary opponents in 2016 failed to do so.
Obstacles abound
"I believe that the opportunity for a Trump alternative has nearly disappeared at this moment," commented Gregg Keller, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the American Conservative Union.
Former Vice President Mike Pence and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott have already dropped out, but Haley, DeSantis, Christie, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, the four who qualified for the latest GOP presidential primary debate, show no signs of exiting the race before votes are cast.
"It's hard to make the decision to drop out when you don't believe your candidacy is viable and instead throw your support behind another candidate," Merrill explained. "Everyone has their own theory about this race right now."
Even if a Trump rival manages to pull off a surprising win in one of the early voting states, GOP officials and strategists argue that the Republican primary format will ultimately favor the former president as the race moves toward Super Tuesday in March, with his strong base of support paying off in states with winner-takes-all delegate contests.
This is why Jennifer Horn, the former New Hampshire Republican Party chair and a critic of Trump, believes that defeating the former president is simply not going to be possible.
Horn explained that the discussion was centered around the Republican base and primary voters, not general election voters or independents. He also noted that there is a constant 33% of Republican voters who will not change their stance, regardless of the circumstances. The failure to unify the anti-Trump vote has been particularly evident in the split between the governors of the first two voting states: Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds endorsed DeSantis, while New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu recently endorsed Haley.
Susie Wiles, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, informed reporters in New Hampshire on Saturday that the endorsement from either governor would not change the direction of the race. "Similar to how we did not see Kim Reynolds make a significant impact in Iowa, we do not anticipate Chris Sununu doing so here," Wiles stated.
The Haley veepstakes complaints
DeSantis and his supporters have been unsuccessful in persuading Republicans that the Florida governor is the only threat to Trump. They have recently attempted to sabotage Haley's presidential bid by alleging that she is actually running for vice president.
During an interview on Friday, Trump implied that he would be unlikely to choose his former United Nations ambassador, Nikki Haley, as a potential running mate. However, he also mentioned that he has always had a good relationship with Nikki. In response, DeSantis challenged Trump to unequivocally state to his supporters that he will not select Nikki Haley as his running mate under any circumstances. He also urged Nikki to be more transparent about whether she would accept the vice presidential nomination. DeSantis emphasized that Nikki should provide a direct answer and owe it to the people to clarify if she would accept a vice presidential nomination from Donald Trump. He concluded by stating that he would not, under any circumstances, agree to run on a ticket with the former president.
Ellie Mooney, a 44-year-old resident of New Hampshire, adds her signature to the campaign bus of Republican presidential candidate Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida following a Never Back Down campaign event in Keene, New Hampshire, U.S., on November 21, 2023. REUTERS/Sophie Park
Sophie Park/Reuters
Chief strategist for pro-DeSantis super PAC resigns in latest high-profile departure
The DeSantis campaign has openly embraced conspiracy theories on social media, suggesting an alignment between Trump and Haley. Christina Pushaw, director of DeSantis's rapid response operation, shared a post by a DeSantis supporter claiming, without evidence, that Haley was a "Trump operative." She also amplified another post implying that a pro-Haley super PAC was spending all of its advertising money attacking DeSantis on air to free up money for Trump to pay his legal expenses.
"This is why Trump wants Nikki Haley as vice president," Pushaw said to her followers.
Christie has also leveled criticism against Haley, suggesting that she is not willing to critique the former president. "If she hasn't ruled out being his vice president, I don't believe she can be viewed as a serious competitor against him," he stated during an interview on CBS "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
Christie's criticism, reflecting his previous comments from other interviews and the campaign trail, signals a significant change for the former New Jersey governor. During the fourth GOP primary debate earlier this month, he mostly refrained from attacking Haley.
Yet, the two have been heading towards a collision, partly due to their shared strategy of banking on a strong finish in New Hampshire to propel them ahead of the other Republican candidates and solidify their position as the only credible challenger to Trump.
During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," Christie displayed a shift in strategy when questioned about Trump's controversial statement on undocumented immigrants. He strongly criticized Trump, calling his remarks "disgusting" and accusing him of using racist dog whistles. Christie then shifted the focus of the conversation, turning the question about Trump's comments into an attack on Haley.
"Nikki Haley should feel ashamed of herself as she is contributing to the problem by enabling him. By telling people, 'It's OK,' she is giving him permission," Christie said. "I want to make it very clear: I am in this race to show people that it is not acceptable. It is not acceptable for an American president to make such statements. And she should be ashamed of herself."
Trumps comments on border, foreign policy draw fire
DeSantis criticized Trump's anti-immigrant comments in Iowa on Monday, calling them problematic because they diverted attention from President Joe Biden's handling of the border crisis.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at a campaign rally on Saturday, December 16, in Durham, New Hampshire.
Reba Saldanha/AP
DeSantis said it would be a tactical mistake to give the opposition the ability to make the campaign about something else.
While campaigning in Carroll, Iowa on Monday, Haley referred to Trump's comments from October in which he criticized Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as "not prepared" for a terror attack by Hamas on October 7 and praised the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah as "very smart."
"The part that bothers me is our national security is at risk, and what's he doing? He's praising dictators," the former UN ambassador said. "I think that [Trump's] policies were good."
She then revisited the issue of the attack ads by pro-DeSantis groups targeting her.
"During the silly season, people get desperate and will say anything," Haley commented. "Right now, Ron is just throwing things against the wall, and nothing is sticking."
Early state ad wars all but ignore Trump
DeSantis and Haley, along with the outside groups backing them, have invested millions in attack ads against each other. Surprisingly, very few ads have been aimed at the former president, even though he holds a substantial lead, according to AdImpact data.
In the last year, Haley and her allied super PAC have invested approximately $6.4 million in broadcast TV ads aimed at DeSantis. In recent weeks, they have intensified their criticism, releasing multiple new ads that mock and scrutinize the Florida governor. One ad, broadcasted by the pro-Haley super PAC, portrays DeSantis imitating the mannerisms and hand gestures of Trump. The narrator dismisses DeSantis as a "phony" and deems him "too ineffective to lead and too feeble to succeed."
A recent ad from the pro-Haley super PAC in Iowa called DeSantis' campaign a "dumpster fire" and accused the Florida governor of consistently trying to out-Trump Trump. On the other hand, DeSantis and two super PACs supporting him have spent approximately $5.9 million on ads targeting Haley. One of the pro-DeSantis super PACs, Fight Right, has released five ads in the last month criticizing the former South Carolina governor, likening her to Hillary Clinton, and accusing her of wavering on important issues.
Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie speaks at an event in Nashua, New Hampshire, on October 13, 2023.
Joseph Prezioso/AFP/Getty Images
Christie ramps up Haley criticism as he rejects calls to exit GOP primary
"Do not trust anything Nikki Haley says. The narrator made this statement in a Fight Right segment, highlighting the contradiction between her current positions as a 2024 candidate and her previous statements.
Neither the candidate's campaign nor their allies have allocated substantial funds to criticize Trump.
DeSantis and his supporters have invested approximately $381,000 on ads aimed at Trump. The campaign has released a new ad featuring a former supporter endorsing DeSantis. This marks the first direct attempt by the governor's campaign to target Trump through advertising. Additionally, Never Back Down, another super PAC allied with DeSantis, aired ads over the summer criticizing Trump for his attacks on Reynolds and Sununu. Haley, on the other hand, has aired a few ads with mild criticism, but none that specifically focus on the former president.
Christie's team, despite having fewer resources than DeSantis or Haley, has spent relatively little on advertising. However, they have aired the most explicitly anti-Trump advertising in the current GOP field, totaling about $480,000 according to AdImpact data.
One of Christie's new ads takes aim at all three of the top-polling Republican candidates. A narrator repeats attacks made by Haley and DeSantis against each other, before asserting: "There's only one candidate trying to stop Trump. Chris Christie is the only one who can beat Trump because he's the only one trying to beat Trump."
Trump and his allied super PAC, MAGA Inc., have used around $11.8 million on broadcast TV ads to criticize DeSantis since the Florida governor joined the race. However, these ads, which initially portrayed DeSantis as a serious threat, have decreased in frequency in recent months. Trump's more recent ads now focus on messages that appear to be aimed at the general electorate, ignoring his primary rivals.
CNNs Ebony Davis and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
