Why Virginia Republicans Need Nikki Haley to Win

It should come as little surprise to those who know me that I support Nikki Haley as the Republican presidential nominee. While the challenge for her to overtake Trump is steep, she enjoys the best chance among the field to defeat him. She understands the importance of a strong national defense, the threat Putin poses to our national security, that Xi Jinping has one eye on the outcome of the Ukraine war as he hungrily casts his other eye towards Taiwan.

Haley appreciates the amplified power that comes with strong international alliances. She likewise believes that we must restore fiscal sanity on the federal level. As the polls reflect, Haley is the Republican best poised to not only defeat Joe Biden, but also to ensure that Republicans control both houses of Congress come January 2025.

In the age of Trump, perhaps most importantly, Nikki Haley does not represent a threat to our democracy, which in my opinion Donald Trump surely does.

Simply put, Trump is an Orban, autocratic wannabe. Don’t take my word for it. Take his. Trump has candidly touted what passes for his platform and has been plainspoken about his intentions. Trump has showered praise on the likes of Orban who has been dismantling Hungary’s democratic institutions and safeguards. Trump intends to imprison those who oppose him, including politicians he deems a threat to his power. He will crack down on and revoke broadcast licenses of media outlets who dare to criticize him and will exact revenge on political leaders who don’t publicly embrace the big lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. (Trump resembles a character that has managed to leap out of the pages of a George Orwell novel.)

Trump intends to gut NATO and hand Ukraine to Putin on a platter. He believes as president, he should enjoy unfettered power. To that end, he wants to strip federal employees of all civil service protection so he can fire tens of thousands of federal employees and replace them with sycophants who will do his bidding without regard to the law.

He proudly proclaims that he will be his followers’ “retribution,” and that he won’t hesitate to suspend portions of the Constitution he deems inconvenient. The irony is thick that Trump has seized control of a political party that for decades espoused the virtues of limited government and warned against the abuse of presidential power.

I submit that as Republicans, it is not enough that we object to or disagree with Democrat policies and proposals. We must also ask ourselves what is worse than a Democrat in the White House. To me the answer is simple: the loss of our democracy. Make no mistake. That is what we risk if Trump wins the presidency and installs his minions to eviscerate the checks and balances that our Founding Fathers created to protect us from the likes of Trump.

The good news is that Republicans do not have to be faced come November 2024 with the Hobbesian choice between a Democrat President and the loss of democracy. We simply need to nominate Nikki Haley to escape such a troubling fate.

But for those of my fellow Virginia Republicans who do not perceive Trump as a threat to democracy, I have another fundamental reason why you should support Nikki Haley. Consider the impact that a Trump nomination would have on Virginia’s political landscape.

Virginia is a proverbial purple state. Anyone who worked the polls in a Virginia suburban district from 2017 through 2020 can attest that Trump is an anathema to most Virginia suburban voters, especially women. If the Republican Party doesn’t move past Trump, Democrats will hang him around our political necks and sweep Republicans from office.

The only way the Virginia Republican party could survive is to somehow decouple from the national party like Northeastern Republicans of years gone by, an exceptionally difficult feat in today’s 24/7 news cycle and social media age. Virginians find a center right platform attractive if it is not tainted by Trump. That is why Youngkin was successful in 2021 when the electorate thought the party had moved past Trump.

But if Trump wins the nomination, Biden will win Virginia handily. If Trump wins the presidency, I pity the Virginia Republican statewide candidates as well as many of the Republicans in the General Assembly. The results in Virginia will be ugly.

We can avoid such dire results in Virginia if Nikki Haley secures the Republican presidential nomination. So I urge my fellow Republicans to support Nikki Haley even if you scoff at the notion that Trump represents an existential threat to our democracy. Because at the least, he represents a threat to the Republican Party’s viability in Virginia.