‘We fight for every inch,’ declared Nikki Haley after she won her first primary in the District of Columbia last week. Her fight didn’t last long. The former governor of South Carolina managed to win one state primary on Super Tuesday, handing the presidential nomination to Donald Trump. Haley’s campaign is over – and with it went the hopes of the Never Trump movement.
Why did the attempt to reclaim the Republican party from Trump fail so badly? There are 340 million people in the US: all the Never Trump campaign needed to do was find one who’d make a more convincing Republican candidate. Not only did no candidate emerge, no one came close. Almost from the get-go in the Republican primaries, there has been no contest.
It hasn’t helped that the Never Trump movement has been essentially faceless. Serious people – including former Republican presidents and presidential candidates – have spoken out against Trump over the years, but no one has wanted to lead the charge against him. You can understand why: it often doesn’t end well for those who stand up to him. (The Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney lost her seat when she did it.) But if you’re going to try to take on a man who has a bigger political profile than any living politician, you need a charismatic challenger.
Instead, the struggling movement quickly became a desperate one. Awful candidates were presented as Republican saviours. Ron DeSantis was given a free ride from the start, as if primary voters wouldn’t notice that he struggles to perform on a national stage. The Florida governor’s authoritarian streak for going after private businesses such as Disney and Bud Light for their politics – something the Never Trump movement should loathe – was glossed over.
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