WASHINGTON — Two weeks after his last opponent dropped out of the Republican presidential race, coup-attempting former President Donald Trump is still seeing one in five GOP primary voters cast a ballot against him — potentially spelling trouble for his hopes to win back the White House.
In Ohio, which Trump carried easily in both 2016 and 2020, Trump won 79% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary to former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s 14%.
In Kansas, a solidly Republican state in presidential elections for decades, Trump got only 76%.
And in Florida, where Trump barely squeaked out a win in 2016 and only won by 3 points in 2020, Trump received 81% to Haley’s 14% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 4%.
(Haley and DeSantis still appeared on those ballots, but Haley dropped out on March 6 and DeSantis back in January.)
“It’s a problem for him. There is no conceivable reason for him to be leaking 20 percent at this point other than protest,” said David Axelrod, the Democratic consultant who helped Barack Obama win the presidency in 2008. “He needs to reel those folks back in but is still mired in base rhetoric that may only harden their resistance.”
“It’s something they ought to take seriously,” said David Kochel, a veteran Republican consultant from Iowa. “I think many will come back to Trump but there is a subset that are true ‘Never Trumpers.’”
Trump campaign officials did not respond to HuffPost’s queries on Tuesday night’s totals, which mirror previous results from the Georgia primary on March 12 and a number of states on March 5’s Super Tuesday contests.
The numbers have some members of the Republican National Committee warning that Trump’s inability or unwillingness to reach out to supporters of other candidates could contribute to Democratic President Joe Biden’s reelection come November.
“After any primary, the winner needs to secure the base,” said Haley Barbour, an RNC member from Mississippi who supported Haley in the…
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