By Kurt Bardella / Los Angeles Times
Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, represents the Republican Party’s best hope to vanquish Donald Trump. While many foes and pundits have piled on Haley for her recent Civil War-slavery “gaffe,” the reality is in the Republican primary, voters are unlikely to punish her considering the overall party’s recent crusades against subjects like “critical race theory.”
Let’s be clear in reviewing the non-Haley candidates: We have Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose entire organization has been imploding for weeks. Provocateur Vivek Ramaswamy can’t even qualify for the next debate. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is betting the house on a strong showing in New Hampshire, but failed to secure the support of Gov. Chris Sununu, who endorsed Haley. Also supporting Haley is the deep-pocketed Koch political network.
The inescapable truth is that the future of the GOP and democracy depends on kicking Trump off the ballot by defeating him in the primary, and the only way that can realistically happen is if the Republican primary field consolidates and endorses Haley. Given the fact that Haley was Trump’s choice to be his United Nations ambassador, no one can argue with her conservative credentials.
Republican primary voters — those who haven’t gone fully MAGA — need a viable alternative to Trump, not a bunch of weak candidates who simply failed to launch. The question is whether the weak and fragmented GOP is doomed to repeat the mistakes of 2016.
Imagine how differently things could have played out if Sens. Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham and former Govs. Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Jeb Bush of Florida saw the writing on the wall, accepted reality, and moved to coalesce around a single candidate to defeat Trump in 2016. Now DeSantis, Christie, Ramaswamy and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson face a similar scenario.
Haley could be that candidate, since none of the others has a glimmer of a chance. Now’s the time for the losers to get out of the race and endorse Haley; before officially losing in Iowa and New Hampshire. The longer the field is divided, the stronger Trump gets.
Staying in the race is the single best way to abet Trump’s dictatorial ambitions. And for those who have already exited the race like Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott, not supporting a Trump alternative is basically an endorsement of Trump.
If the field narrows to just Haley and Trump, Haley would have a real shot at damaging him. Trump’s toxic ego would make it hard for him to dodge one-on-one debates with Haley. If there is any opportunity to dethrone Donald, it’s going to be on a debate stage, where Haley has shown herself to be incredibly effective.
For years, Republican leaders have let Trump run roughshod over the entire GOP apparatus. They all pretended like there was nothing they could do to stop him or his MAGA base. They chose to embrace his movement out of cowardice and political gain. Now the threat to democracy is even more severe than on Jan. 6, 2021, when insurrectionists, led by Trump, stormed the U.S. Capitol. Unless he is beaten in the primary, democracy will remain under attack by his lies and more violence should he lose the general election in November.
The issues Republicans and Democrats disagree on — abortion, guns, climate change, taxation, equality, health care, immigration — don’t really matter if we don’t have a democracy to conduct those debates. As much as I disagree with Republicans on these issues, I still believe our system works best when we have two functioning political parties rooted in truth, fact and reality instead of conspiracy theory, election denialism and dictatorial goals.
It’s ironic that the Republican Party, which brought the nation to this point, has the best shot at preserving democracy now, not the Democrats.
We’ll see if the wannabe field of GOP challengers will scurry into line behind Trump once he runs the table in the early primaries. Perhaps they’ll all be jockeying for spots in his Cabinet. Or maybe some of them might do the right thing and endorse the best candidate to challenge Trump in the coming weeks.
What we do know: A multi-candidate Republican primary field isn’t a contest, it sets the stage for a Donald Trump coronation.
Kurt Bardella is a contributing writer to Opinion. He is a Democratic strategist and a former senior advisor for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee. Follow him on X @KurtBardella ©2024 Los Angeles Times, latimes.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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