Unexpected warning sign for Trump in Indiana GOP primary

Nikki Haley’s “zombie campaign” has picked up more 20 per cent of the vote in Indiana’s Republican primary, in a warning sign for Donald Trump.

Despite dropping out of the race in March after being trounced by Mr Trump, Ms Haley took 128,000 votes to the former president’s 462,000 in the state.

Mr Trump has been the presumptive Republican presidential candidate for months and had a clean sweep of Indiana’s counties – but in some he was pushed down to below two-thirds of the vote.

His worst performance was in Marion county, which contains the state’s capital, Indianapolis, where he took 65 per cent to Ms Haley’s 35 per cent. Mr Trump’s lead was also softer in surrounding counties Hamilton, Allen and Hendricks.

The former president has been a clear front-runner throughout the primary season, but has struggled to dominate suburban areas.

Ms Haley, unlike many of her former primary competitors, has pointedly refused to endorse Mr Trump.

Instead, as she suspended her campaign following the Super Tuesday primary results in early March, she said it was up to him “to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it who did not support him”. Ballots cast for candidates who have withdrawn from the race are often called zombie votes.

Joe Biden, the US President, has made explicit overtures to her voters.

“Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters,” he said when she dropped out of the race.

A few weeks later, his campaign spent $1 million (£800,000) on an advert showing clips of Mr Trump attacking Ms Haley and her supporters, which ran for three weeks across battleground states.

One of those states was Pennsylvania where, in this month’s primary, Ms Haley took ⁦158,000 votes (16.6 per cent) to her former boss’ 793,000 (83.4 per cent).

It was reported last week that three sources close to the Trump campaign confirmed there had been no outreach from either side. One Republican operative told CNN that the divisions between the camps could cost Mr Trump the state.

Indiana is generally regarded as a safe Republican state, and was last won by a Democrat in 2008.

In 2020, Mr Trump swept the state with 57 per cent of the vote, while Mr Biden took a handful of counties – including Marion.

At the time, Mr Trump’s running mate was Mike Pence, the state’s former governor and congressman. He too is withholding his support from his former boss.