Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador, delivers remarks at her primary-night rally at the Grappone Conference Center on Jan. 23 in Concord, N.H.
Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a primary election night party in Nashua, N.H., on Jan. 23, as Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Vivek Ramaswamy watch.
Political cartoon by John Branch.
Texans deserve a say in the Republican presidential primary, but major campaign donors may not give them a chance.
U.S. Sen. John Cornyn called on Nikki Haley to drop out of the GOP primary on Wednesday after only 229,134 people voted for former President Donald Trump out of roughly 45 million Republican voters. Cornyn and political pundits suggest that the former U.N. ambassador has little chance of winning, even though more than 48% of Republicans have opposed Trump.
The Never Trump Republicans are strong with Haley. Trump’s margins of victory were also lower than polling anticipated.
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Haley’s problem is not a lack of public support but concern about dwindling campaign coffers. Every candidate relies on deep pockets to run, which gives donors more power than the voters in our democracy. No wonder we end up with such unpopular choices.
Trump gets it. Rather than compete for votes, he’s threatening anyone who supports Haley, whom he calls Birdbrain.
“When I ran for Office and won, I noticed that the losing Candidate’s ‘Donors’ would immediately come to me, and want to ‘help out,’” Trump wrote using his unique capitalization rules on Truth Social. “Anybody that makes a ‘Contribution’ to Birdbrain, from this moment forward, will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp.”
The lengthy primary schedule is premised on the idea that competition improves the breed. Politicians must travel the country, share their ideas, and ask for votes. The delegate system, and in some ways, the Electoral College, prevents presidential candidates from concentrating solely on the most populous states.
Iowa and New Hampshire are not the best places to start the primary season because they are older, whiter and more conservative than most of the nation. But their small size makes glad-handing retail politics possible, even mandatory.
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Those races remain expensive. In Iowa, Republican candidates and their allies spent $123 million competing for the favor of 110,298 caucusgoers. That’s $1,115 per participant.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis dropped out after Iowa despite coming in second to Trump. His campaign’s fundraising and management imploded, and donors deserted him. Voters in 49 states never got a chance to hear DeSantis’s case.
Haley says she has enough money to keep going, at least through the South Carolina primary on Feb. 24. She’s looking past Nevada’s GOP caucus next week, which Trump is guaranteed to win because of a legal dispute. A political game with no connection to democracy is punishing a Trump challenger.
The Republican Party and conservatives can do better than Trump, and I hope they do. If some Republicans believe a shortened primary season will help them, they should take note of President Joe Biden’s enthusiasm for running against Trump.
Republicans are not the only ones showing anti-democratic tendencies in the 2024 race. Democrats who argue Trump is disqualified from running under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment are also harming the nation’s politics and damaging their party’s reputation.
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Legal scholars like to argue the amendment, which was written to keep traitorous Confederates from retaking power, is broad enough to exclude Trump from office. The former president undoubtedly encouraged his supporters to storm the Capitol, and he delayed sending reinforcements to the police fighting for their lives. But the Senate refused to convict him during impeachment proceedings.
Trump represents millions of American voters, perhaps enough to retake the White House. For the good of the country, the U.S. Supreme Court must overrule those who would ban him from the ballot. Otherwise, Democrats are little better than Russian President Vladimir Putin or Iranian Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who take it upon themselves to decide who is fit to run for office.
Liberals rely far too often on the courts to bring justice to our nation. Yes, constitutions are designed to protect minority rights, but that does not obviate the need to win elections and referendums by making a case to voters.
Hopefully, Haley will stay in long enough for Texans to vote on Super Tuesday, March 5. Voters that day will award nearly half of all delegates to the Republican National Convention, where they will formally choose the nominee.
If Trump wins enough delegates to wrap up the nomination, so be it. But for Trump to win solely because no opponent could raise enough money to make it through four primary races would be a poor reflection on American democracy.
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If we want better candidates, we must reduce the influence of donors more interested in winning power than supporting democracy. Our campaign finance system needs an overhaul.
Award-winning opinion writer Chris Tomlinson writes commentary about money, politics and life in Texas. Sign up for his “Tomlinson’s Take” newsletter at houstonhchronicle.com/tomlinsonnewsletter or expressnews.com/tomlinsonnewsletter.
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