Posted on 01/15/2024 9:19:05 AM PST by george76
DES MOINES â 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 â but mostly, against former President Trump.
Why it matters: It's unclear how many will show up, but "crossover" voting is a low-key tradition in Iowa's caucuses â and it's one of the big unknowns heading into Monday, along with how the dangerously cold weather will affect things.
How it works: Iowa allows day-of party registration for voters, and Democrats aren't holding in-person presidential caucuses this year.
That's given mischievous anti-Trump voters "a chance to diminish Trump's inevitability," as Don McLeese of West Des Moines put it.
McLeese told Axios he'll be a crossover voter Monday: "I'll hold my nose and caucus for Haley," the former UN ambassador who's been rising in GOP polls.
Lyle Hansen, a Republican precinct captain for Haley in Cedar Rapids, acknowledges that "there could be a good crossover" vote for Haley because Democrats "get to come over and pick the candidate for Biden to oppose."
Hansen speaks from experience, having crossed over to vote in the Democratic caucus in 2016 in order to vote against Hillary Clinton.
Jonathan Neiderbach, a Democrat from Des Moines, said he'll register to caucus as a Republican for Haley.
"I believe all Americans should cast a vote against Donald Trump every chance we have," he said.
Reality check: Crossover voters are highly unlikely to help Haley catch Trump, who's consistently had a big lead in Iowa polls.
But GOP strategist David Kochel said that if crossovers see Haley as the best Republican alternative to Trump, they could help her finish a solid second in Iowa, ahead of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
"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.
The intrigue: There's some risk for Iowa's Democratic Party if many of its members cross over to vote with Republicans.
People who switch parties to participate in a caucus sometimes don't switch back, Tim Hagle, a political scientist at the University of Iowa, tells Axios.
Democrats' plans to have mail-in voting rather than in-person caucuses could prove to be a lost opportunity, Hagle said, because caucus events traditionally have been an "amazing" party-building tool.
Kochel notes that when Barack Obama first ran for president in 2008, Iowa Democrats had their "biggest caucus ever," and "57,000 people came into the Democratic Party."
The big picture: If Haley benefits from crossover voters, it could feed into Trump's claims that Democrats are helping to prop up her campaign.
Trump senior adviser Chris LaCivita brushed aside any concerns about crossover voters aiding Haley.
"If that is something they are relying on to get through the night, then poor people, I feel bad for them," LaCivita told Axios.
Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas countered that Haley is a "tried and true conservative who's working to earn every vote."
On the campaign trail, Haley frequently cites polls that suggest as many as 75% of Americans don't want a Trump-Biden rematch in November.
"Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections," Perez-Cubas said. "That's nothing to be proud of. The Republican Party should be a story of addition."
Ain’t that special.
Time to send buses to Iowa from the border.
Dems could give Haley a boost in Iowa caucuses
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That tells you all you need to know about the nature of her support.
Did you see Rand Paul’s announcement on Twitter?
He said in no way could he support Haley for president.
There are some who think the real election is in the Republican primary, with Haley being the Uniparty nominee vs. Trump.
This makes sense because everyone knows the mummified meat puppet cannot make it through another term.
For sure....SHE’S one of them
“That tells you all you need to know about the nature of her support.”
This is not a new tactic. Trying to support the president the libs want in on the GOP side has been done for years. Having voters register republican and then voting against the GOP candidate that scares them, then voting liberal in the general is a trick the democrats have used since the 60’s. It’s legal, but dishonest because they are trying to get their choices in the general by not voting for the party they are really wishing to forward. Haley is currently in second place, a lap down maybe, but she’s the one they could get the most votes for to oust Trump who the really fear as she is going to get a few conservative votes.
wy69
That was the McCain Campaign in a nutshell in 2008. Their job was to get the nomination. Turned out even McCain’s campaign manager voted for Obama.
They want to do the same thing in NH’s open primary. Biden’s team didn’t hear about it because the “write in Joe Biden” signs went up over the weekend, in force.
If democrats really think Trump would be weakest candidate and almost assure Biden is reelected and conversely Haley would run the strongest against Biden (which is the liberal media conventional wisdom). They shouldn’t they be voting FOR Trump in the primary...
Democrats are indeed holding in person caucuses Monday evening, just without the presidential preference vote. That vote is being held by mail.
Likely more than 200,000 Republicans will caucus. No way enough Dems will cross over to change results in a meaningful way.
Alas ...Icky Nikki doesn't care.
She’s got flip-flopping down to a science. She’ll say
anything to get folks to buy in. There’s not a chance
I’m voting for her.
nice try but that is not how it works.
each party cacaus separately and you have to be already registered.
Iowa is constitutional carry state. Any problems at a caucus? Asking for a friend.
Like Lez Cheney
How’d that work out for them.
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