The former president’s biggest GOP rival is showing how he has never fully recovered his standing with a key voting bloc.
…
But Haley’s surge is revealing of a broader problem for Trump—one that could potentially derail the former president in the general election should he defeat her in the primary.
Women, including Republican women, still just don’t like the former president.
A recent survey of likely voters in New Hampshire distills the extent of the challenge for Trump. The poll, conducted by American Research Group, showed Trump beating Haley overall among GOP primary voters, 37 percent to 33 percent.
But among Republican women, Haley was running ahead of Trump by 6 points.
The Centrist™️ might be best personified by the old Englightened Centrist subreddit.
Basically, it's not someone who smokes weed on Friday, shoots at the shooting range on Saturday, goes to church on Sunday, and then volunteers at planned parenthood on Monday.
A Centrist™️ is someone who believes truth is found at the fifty yard line. They think if Trump wants to ban all Muslims coming into the US and his opponents do not, then maybe we should just find a way to screen Muslims extra hard. They believe every single word they read in a newspaper. They voted for Romney and then Trump and can't understand why, based on their policy and tone differences, this might appear super racist to a lot of Americans. The Centrist famously thinks pro life and pro choice are morons, we should just let women decide. The Centrist thinks Elon Musk is smart because he's an independent and a job creator. The Centrist was a boring capitalist twenty years ago, fell asleep, didn't realize how late stage shit got and how far fascist Republicans have become. The Centrist likes to say "but both sides" do x! (x might be "fundraise on abortions/guns")
Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
Continued: a Centrist (in this context) is NOT a liberal who is skeptical of the democratic party. A Centrist is not someone who has policy ideas not espoused by either party.
Because if anyone has a shot at beating Trump in the primary, it's her. It's still a long shot, sure, but if she got the nomination (because a certain someone got kicked off enough ballots), Biden could potentially lose his not-Trump voting bloc.
And she's still the same level of christofascist that would happily implement Project 2025, but she's much better at hiding it to win over the moderate conservatives.
A long, drawn out primary fight could drain resources that would otherwise fund a general election campaign. And I don't think it would take long to get bitter and personal, which could turn off independents, but might also cause supporters of the losing candidate to stay home or vote third party.