As if efforts to prosecute him and remove his name from primary ballots were not enough, Democrats attempted to manipulate Monday’s Iowa caucuses to chip away at former President Donald Trump’s massive lead.
Specifically, Democratic Party operatives across the state embraced a strategy of identifying as “Republicans for a day” in order to cast votes for former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley, thus diluting Trump’s domination of the GOP primary field.
Some Iowa Democrats and independents are planning to crash the state's Republican caucuses Monday night and become "Republicans for a day" to vote for Nikki Haley — but mostly, against former President Trump. https://t.co/twRLcCBPCZ
— Axios (@axios) January 14, 2024
A number of Democratic voters expressed support for the plan, including Jonathan Neiderbach of Des Moines, who declared: “I believe all Americans should cast a vote against Donald Trump every chance we have.”
Another local Democrat, Don McLeese, said that such crossover votes would provide “a chance to diminish Trump’s inevitability,” confirming his intention to “hold [his] nose and caucus for Haley.”
While few anti-Trump voters from either party expressed any hope that the strategy would result in an outright win by Haley, they were hopeful that it would propel her to a strong second-place finish, putting her in a better position to take on Trump in the upcoming New Hampshire and South Carolina primaries, where she has gained ground in recent weeks.
Although a recent USA Today survey indicated Haley was polling in second place in New Hampshire with 26% support among GOP voters in that state, she was still 20 points behind Trump.
Crossover voting does not technically violate any caucus rules and has been a factor in previous election cycles, but this year saw a higher-than-usual level of coordination.
Lyle Hansen, who served as a precinct captain for Haley, acknowledged that “there could be a good crossover” turnout for the candidate and Republican Party strategist David Kochel noted that a strong showing could be enough to relegate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to third place.
“If you even had 5,000 or 7,500 people across the state cross over for her, that might be the difference between her and Ron DeSantis,” Kochel said.
For his part, Trump campaign adviser Chris LaCivita downplayed the strategy’s impact, describing it as a sign of desperation on the part of the former president’s most ardent critics.
“If that is something they are relying on to get through the night, then poor people I feel bad for them,” he said.
