Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are fighting each other for 2nd place in the polling.

 

Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. The Hill.

Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley are now targeting each other as most polls show them fighting for 2nd place, far behind Donald Trump. The Hill. The two campaigns are sniping at each other due to Haley's stance on Palestinian refugees from the Israel-Hamas war. DeSantis accused Haley of wanting the United States to take in refuges while Haley says that isn't accurate. Haley has been gaining momentum due to her greater experience in foreign policy in a time where foreign policy has dominated the news. Haley now leads Ron DeSantis in some key states, like her home state of South Carolina, but is still behind DeSantis nationally. Both remain far behind Donald Trump, who gets around 50% of the support in most polling. 

My Comment:

This is kind of a funny fight between two also-rans. The only way that Nikki Haley or Ron DeSantis will be the candidate in 2024 is if Donald Trump drops dead or inexplicably drops out of the race. Neither candidate has a realistic chance of being the candidate. 

I do think that the DeSantis team is being dishonest about what Haley actually said. She said that only about half of people in Gaza are anti-Semitic and the rest want to get rid of Hamas. I don't believe for a second that is true but she didn't say anything about bringing refugees into the United States. DeSantis and his team is lying about this. 

It's just another example of the DeSantis team floundering. During the pre-campaign period before DeSantis announced he was thought as a viable candidate that had a decent chance to beat Donald Trump. But ever since his disastrous campaign announcement via Twitter DeSantis has failed.

These kind of attacks are a big reason for it. DeSantis has been greatly hampered by his team. So many times have they attacked people with nonsense and it has backfired every time. Indeed, Trump supporters are probably telling Haley to get used to it because it's all DeSantis fans do, lie about their opposition. 

As for Haley, her problem is that she is a neocon on foreign policy. Republicans have largely rejected the neocons after Trump took over the party. People remember the period between 2016 and 2020 where we had no new wars and how much of an improvement it was over the foreign policy of Bush and Obama (not to mention Biden). Haley would just be more of the same. 

But at least Haley has been consistent in her terribleness on foreign policy, DeSantis has flip flopped on the issue. It's funny that his team accused Haley of being a flip-flopper after DeSantis was caught red handed doing the same thing on the Ukraine issue. It's a major reason why I ruled out supporting DeSantis if Trump somehow becomes unavailable, he's not trustworthy on the issue. 

Haley does seem like she is playing for a VP slot, which I would be opposed to, due to her foreign policy issues. She's focused more on taking down DeSantis than she is on trying to oppose Trump. She has mildly criticized Trump on occasion but also praises him and says she would support him if he is the candidate. Trump might reward that with a place in his administration, though I doubt she will get the VP slot. 

The elephant in the room is of course Donald Trump. The whole discussion is academic because Trump is pretty much bulletproof among his supporters. Like I said, unless Trump is dead, incapacitated or inexplicably decides to back out, he's the nominee and DeSantis and Haley will be historical footnotes at best.