Nikki Haley’s decision not to endorse Donald Trump in the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race has found resonance among her supporters in Pennsylvania. Despite not actively campaigning since ending her bid in early March, Haley garnered nearly 17% of the primary vote in the state, or 1 in 6 votes, to Trump’s 83%.
Haley’s support in Pennsylvania, a crucial battleground state with 19 electoral votes, could prove damaging to Trump’s prospects for victory in the state and potentially his reelection. While Haley’s base was not large enough to challenge Trump before he clinched the Republican nomination, her ability to garner more than 156,000 votes in Pennsylvania — about twice the margin by which Joe Biden beat Trump in the state in 2020 — raises concerns for the former president.
Haley’s support was particularly strong in urban and suburban areas, where Trump faced significant losses in his previous presidential campaigns. These areas tend to have a higher concentration of Republican voters who are more moderate or independent-minded. Their reluctance to support Trump could indicate a broader shift within the Republican party.
On the Democratic side, U.S. Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota won 7% of the vote against Biden, or nearly 70,000 votes. Counties had reported nearly 60,000 votes for write-in candidates, with a handful of counties yet to report their write-in totals. Phillips and Haley qualified for Pennsylvania’s primary ballot before dropping out of the presidential race, while Biden and Trump are on track to win their parties’ presidential nominations and face each other in November’s general election. Phillips has since endorsed Biden.
In total, about 1 million ballots have been counted in Tuesday’s GOP and Democratic presidential primaries in Pennsylvania, out of 3.5 million registered Republican voters and 3.9 million registered Democratic voters. Pennsylvania holds closed primary elections, meaning that voters must have been registered as a Republican or a Democrat by April 8 to vote in the primary for that party.
