Haley’s South Carolina secret weapon? Democrats

Polls indicate that Donald Trump should win South Carolina’s Republican primary comfortably this Saturday. But Nikki Haley — the state’s former governor — is going beyond her Republican base: In the hopes of an upset victory, she’s asking Democrats to vote for her, too.

During a rally in Georgetown, South Carolina, on Thursday, Haley told attendees to “take five people with you” to the polls this weekend, before adding a reminder: “Anybody can vote in this (primary) election, as long as you didn’t vote in the Democrat primary on Feb. 3.”

Just over 130,000 Democrats voted in their party’s primary earlier this month, a relatively low turnout — around 4% of registered voters statewide. In a last-moment heave, Haley is trying to bank on the huge number of remaining Democratic and independent voters to provide a burst of momentum.

The call isn’t coming from Haley alone. SFA Fund Inc., the super PAC backing Haley, sent out mailers throughout the state, reminding Democrats that they may be eligible to vote in the Republican primary. “Time is running out,” the mailers read. “You have a choice. Vote for Nikki Haley against Donald Trump.”

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Another group, PrimaryPivot, sent out thousands of texts to Democrats statewide on the day before their party’s primary, reminding voters they could “make your vote count by protecting democracy” by voting in the Republican primary, where “democracy itself is on the line.” The group sent out a follow-up text last week to Democrats who didn’t vote in their party’s primary, nudging them to “vote for a candidate that respects democracy in the more competitive primary.”

“Our objective was not to damage Joe Biden in any way,” Robert Schwartz, a co-founder of PrimaryPivot and a longtime Democrat, told the Deseret News. “It did get interpreted by the media as encouraging people to sit out, which is incorrect.”

Instead, Schwartz said, his goal is “encouraging people to think about where their vote matters most. And we obviously believe that their vote matters more in the Republican primary than in a Democratic primary, where Joe Biden won by 96%.”

The strategy has infuriated Republican Party leadership in South Carolina. Republicans in the state legislature have tried for several years to pass legislation that would close Republican primary elections to only members of the party. In a Monday statement, the party said calls for Democratic participation are “outrageous.”

“The South Carolina Republican Presidential Preference Primary has the best track-record in the country for picking presidents, and I’m not going to sit back and allow Democrats to tarnish our reputation,” Drew McKissick, chairman of the South Carolina Republican Party, said in a statement.

That hasn’t dissuaded Schwartz and others from trying. Schwartz has a limited background in Democratic politics — he worked on a Senate campaign in his home state, Missouri, but then spent years living abroad and studying authoritarian regimes in Latin America. “I’ve seen how democracies actually die,” Schwartz said. “I think it is extremely likely that we will lose our democracy if Trump wins.”

That led Schwartz and a friend, Ken Scheffler, to form PrimaryPivot. They decided to find a way to convince Democrats to vote against Trump in Republican primaries instead of participating in their party’s own uncompetitive primaries. They raised $25,000 from friends and family to get off the ground; since then, Schwartz said they have raised over a million dollars to spend on voter outreach.

In New Hampshire, they poured over $500,000 into swamping independent voters with texts and phone calls. Turnout reached record levels there, thanks in part to Haley’s big advantage among independent voters.

In South Carolina, though, PrimaryPivot faces a different challenge. South Carolina Democrats “are anti-Trump,” Schwartz said, “but they’re also anti-Haley. They have voted against Nikki Haley multiple times.” Instead of convincing New Hampshire independents to vote for the non-Trump candidate, PrimaryPivot is trying to sell South Carolina Democrats on the ex-governor they opposed for years.

The choice, Schwartz tells them, is not whether or not to support Haley; it’s whether or not to oppose Trump.

“If you want to help defeat Donald Trump, whether now or in November, the best way to do that is to vote against him,” Schwartz explained. “It will cause him to continue to have his tantrums, and those tantrums will be directed at Nikki Haley, instead of Joe Biden.”

It’s a message that squares with a decent portion of Haley’s base. Several attendees at Haley’s rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on Thursday said they planned to support Haley because she is running against Trump, not because they particularly liked her message.

One man, who moved to South Carolina from New Jersey, said he is “repulsed” by Trump, and Haley is “the only other option.” Another couple, who relocated from New York, arrived late to the event, and said they were underwhelmed by the end of Haley’s speech. “It was a little flat,” said Daniel Cunningham. “Maybe she’s getting tired.”

But Melissa Cunningham said she believes Haley is a much better option than the alternative. “Trump is a charlatan,” she said. “He’s been a charlatan his entire life. This is not the direction the country needs to go.”

Schwartz recognizes that Haley faces a steep climb in South Carolina, and he doesn’t expect her to win. But they’ve already begun sending texts to voters in Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts and Virginia, attempting to prolong the GOP primary as much as possible.

“We expect a large Trump victory (in South Carolina),” Schwartz said. “Our only goal is to make it a little bit smaller.”