The GOP race is over. The question after Haley drops out: Will her voters move to Trump?
CBC
The evidence is now irrefutable for what's seemed obvious for weeks: Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee this fall in a presidential rematch against Joe Biden.
Trump's remaining challenger dropped out of the race the day after a lopsided string of Super Tuesday results gave him an insurmountable lead in clinching the party nomination.
Nikki Haley pointedly refrained from offering a full-throated endorsement, although she conceded Trump will be the nominee and wished him well.
She said it's up to Trump to earn her supporters' votes and added: "This is now his time for choosing."
What happens next is less obvious. Will holdout Republicans get past their aversion to him and rally to his side for the November election?
That question could well decide the U.S. presidential election.
The scramble for supporters began Wednesday as some Republicans, like top senator Mitch McConnell, swiftly rallied to Trump's side. Meanwhile, Biden issued a gracious statement saluting Haley and inviting her supporters to join him. Trump trash-talked Haley in his own statement.
For weeks, Haley voters have seen their dilemma coming; they've been grappling with it as it became obvious this moment was approaching.
On Tuesday, when asked that question, Claudia Barbish raised her eyes as she contemplated the unwelcome scenario of voting for Trump.
"Ah, that's a tough question," said Barbish, a Republican, outside a polling station Tuesday in Fairfax, Va., where she cast a ballot for Haley.
"Probably," she went on. "I think I would respect [Trump] as a leader. From a personal standpoint, he's not my favourite."
Trump needs others to follow her example.
Longtime party strategist Karl Rove pulled out a whiteboard on Fox News, late Tuesday, illustrating a potential impediment to Trump's comeback.
He listed the conspicuous clusters still voting against Trump in Republican primaries: more than 20 per cent in numerous states, more than 30 per cent in a few, and half the voters in Vermont. Many of those primary voters are not actual Republicans, but Democrats, who participated to vote against Trump in states that allow cross-party primary voting.
