Donald Trump faced warning signs in Indiana on Tuesday as more than 128,000 voters in the Republican primary chose to cast ballots for another candidate despite him being the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and having no opponents in the race.
Trump received more than 78.3 percent of the vote in the red state’s primary on Tuesday, more than 461,000 voters.
But more than 128,000 voters, 21 percent, cast ballots for Nikki Haley, the one time Republican presidential candidate who dropped out of the race more than two months ago after Super Tuesday.
Despite having a strong hold on the majority of the Republican party, the results Tuesday signal trouble for the former Republican president as he looks to shore up GOP support and expand his base for the general election in November.
Just two weeks ago, Haley received more than 155,000 voters in the Pennsylvania Republican primary, a significant number in a battleground state Biden won by less than 100,000 voters in 2020.
Haley raked in more than half a million votes combined in the March 19 primaries including ones in Florida, Ohio and Arizona, weeks after she dropped out of the race.
She also ate into Trump’s primary support in a number of battleground counties in the battleground Wisconsin.
While the ex-president was able to clinch the nomination much earlier this year than has been seen in past non-incumbent primaries, Haley has not come forward to endorse her one time boss and political opponent.
In response to Indiana’s results, a Trump campaign official pointed out that the state has an open primary, meaning any registered voter may participate in either of the party’s primaries, and Democrats had few competitive contests.
