PORTLAND, Maine — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley asked Mainers for the “courage” to vote for her longshot campaign against former President Donald Trump at a Sunday rally two days ahead of the state’s Republican presidential primary.
Haley’s visit came two days before Maine votes in a slate of Republican presidential primaries that Trump is heavily favored to win. He has won the first seven states, nearly 90 percent of the Republican delegates awarded so far and won 77 percent support among likely Maine primary voters in a poll from the University of New Hampshire last month.
Even though Haley’s run looks increasingly quixotic, she has pushed on with a campaign based around the assertion that Trump cannot beat President Joe Biden. After visits to three other Super Tuesday states since Friday, she rallied a crowd that her campaign estimated at roughly 500 people at an Elks lodge near the Portland airport.
“This is the time for us to be loud and let everybody know that America is better than we see right now,” she said in a nod to the unpopular Trump and Biden.
Trump started off his 2024 race with a large field of rivals, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who looked potent at the beginning of 2023. But Republicans consolidated around him even as his legal trouble deepened. He now faces four criminal cases, including federal charges that he sought to overturn his 2020 defeat and mishandled classified documents.
Yet he is also leading Biden in national polls. Trump also led an early poll of Maine released last week, a warning sign for Democrats in a state that has not voted Republican in a presidential race since 1988. Voters are increasingly concerned about Biden’s age of 81, even as he has effectively locked down his party’s nomination against nominal opposition.
Haley’s main argument is a ream of polls that show her leading Biden by more. She has grown increasingly critical of Trump since she became his only opponent, but his strong support in the Republican grassroots has pushed many of the party’s elected officials to back Trump.
There are a few exceptions. U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, a centrist who voted to convict Trump on a Democratic impeachment charge for inciting the Capitol riots of Jan. 6, 2021, told the Bangor Daily News on Friday that she voted for Haley, becoming only the third member of Congress to endorse the underdog candidate.
“Thank you for using the power of your voice,” Haley said of the senator. “Thank you for showing the fellas that you’ve got more balls than them.”
Haley looked to balance parts of any coalition that would be able to elect her. She hit Republicans in Congress for allocating billions to “pet projects.” She criticized Biden’s abrupt 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan as putting servicemembers in danger.
Yet she got the most applause when she went after Trump for saying in February that he would allow allies who don’t meet defense spending targets if Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded them, saying the former president sides with dictators over friends.
In the middle of her speech, she was interrupted by a Trump supporter who shouted that she was a “neocon.” He was escorted out of the room by security staff.
“His national security is walking away from those alliances,” she said of Trump. “His national security is standing alone.
Aside from Collins, Haley has released only a small list of Maine endorsements mostly consisting of former officeholders. One of them, former state Senate Minority Leader Mary Small of Bath, told the crowd that the underdog candidate will “make America normal again.”
She referred to Trump’s recent remarks celebrating that Republicans are beginning to purge more moderate from the party. The former president said in January that Haley donors would be barred from his camp. But Trump’s campaign is starting to look past Haley to treat him as the presumptive nominee, including in a statement after Collins endorsed the underdog.
“Republican voters have delivered resounding wins for President Trump in every single primary contest and this race is over,” Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung. “Our focus is now on Joe Biden and the general election.”
Many of those who attended the rally on Sunday were realistic about Haley’s low chances. Neil Cote, a 66-year-old former newspaper editor and Republican from Saco, noted that she was in an Elks lodge while Trump would have filled the downtown arena.
“Four years from now, the Republican Party is going to have to rebuild, and Nikki will be in pretty good shape,” Cote said.