The Michigan primary is the latest stop now in the rearview mirror on the road to the White House, and as with every other primary or caucus, Donald Trump emerged the overwhelming winner on the GOP side. Nikki Haley resolutely contends she will stay in the race at least through Super Tuesday, which has many pundits wondering if that’s the wisest course. US Representative Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY 11TH) is among those who feel Haley fought the good fight; she appeared on 710 WOR’s Len Berman and Michael Riedel in the Morning program and postulated on whether the time has come for Haley to finally admit the inevitable and call it a campaign.
“She’s a friend, I know her well, [but] I think that it would be best for the entire party if we all united around the presumptive nominee, who is Donald Trump,” Malliotakis told Riedel and Larry Mendte, sitting in for Berman. “The only thing I can think of is that perhaps she thinks that something is going to happen to him legally, where he won’t be in a position to be able to run, but I don’t see that happening, and right now, the best thing to do for the entire party is to unite behind him so that we can focus on the main objective here, which is to defeat President Biden and ensure that he doesn’t have another term.”
But Election Day 2024 also means the slim Republican majority in the House is up for grabs, and Malliotakis, like many GOP members, is less than enthusiastic about the redrawn Congressional map for New York State. “One of the things they also did last night with this new map is actually cushion the Suozzi seat [in Nassau County], to make it more Democratic, and that, I think, was always our concern, that whether we won the special election or not, that they were going to change the lines to make it a Democrat district, and that is exactly what we’re seeing take place. So, I think it will be a harder seat for Republicans to win in November than it was in 2022.”
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