Do not be surprised if Donald Trump picks Nikki Haley as his running mate as he puts the New York rigged court action aside.
Trump will wear his expected Democrat-planned and plotted conviction as a badge of honor, and it just might catapult him back to the White House.
And he could do a lot worse than having Haley as his running mate. She brings more to the table than any other of Trump’s potential running mates.
She is of Indian extraction and a woman of color, a former governor of South Carolina, Trump’s former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and an effective and proven national campaigner.
Yes, it is true Trump called her “birdbrain” during the GOP presidential primary campaign. There’s that.
It is also true that Haley referred to Trump as being “unhinged.” There’s that too.
But this is politics we are talking about here, not marriage. Besides, Trump has called opponents worse things than that.
And Haley, who ran the most effective campaign against Trump than any other of the losing GOP candidates, also got the more votes than all of them, excluding Trump.
In other words, Haley can not only bring many of her primary voters with her as Trump’s running mate, but she can soften the GOP position on abortion and also appeal to a lot of women voters who are turned off by Trump’s past crude behavior.
In other words, she can cancel Stormy Daniels.
Haley’s name resurfaced as a potential Trump running mate last week after she announced last week that she would vote for Trump in November.
While Trump may not be “perfect” on policies, Joe Biden “has been a catastrophe,” she said. “So, I will be voting for Trump.”
She also urged Trump to “reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me, and not assume that they’re just going to be with him.”
The unsaid message — or plea — to Trump was that the best way to reach out to her army of voters was to name her his vice-presidential running mate.
Evern after Haley dropped out of the primacy contest in March, she continued to gather a significant number of votes in the ongoing primary contests from moderate voters who opposed Trump.
Even Joe Biden recognized the impact Haley made. Upon her withdrawal from the campaign, Biden made a grab for her voters, saying that if Trump did not want her voters, he does. “There’s a place for them in my campaign,” Biden said.
Trump has indicated that despite their political differences, he will pursue Haley’s voters just as he is pursuing voters everywhere.
Even as he has been gagged and made to face a Manhattan show trial, he has visited with New York firefighters, stopped by a bodega, campaigned at a huge rally in New Jersey, held a rally in the Bronx, and attended the Libertarian Party convention in Washington where he was booed.
Trump could not find a better running mate than Haley, 52, to go against Vice President Kamala Harris. Like Harris, 59, Haley is also a woman of color whose parents were born in India. Harris’ father was born in Jamaica and her mother was born in India.
While Harris is the first woman to serve as vice president, a debate between the two would be the first time that two women running for vice president would meet in debate.
Trump may not need Haley to help him defeat an old, tired, and confused Joe Biden, but it sure could help.
Asked about “Birdbrain’s” comments that she would vote for him, Trump suddenly had a “Brainstorm.”
“I appreciate what she said,” he told a New York reporter. He said she was “a capable person.”
“Is there room for her on your team, or better yet, on your ticket?” the reporter asked.
“You know,” Trump said, “we had a nasty campaign. It was pretty nasty. But she’s a very capable person, and I’m sure she’s going to be on our team in some form. Absolutely.”
Peter Lucas is a veteran political reporter. Email him at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
