Former President Trump saw thousands of votes in Tuesday’s New Mexico primary go to his former Republican rivals, continuing a trend seen in previous election contests this cycle.
Trump secured nearly 85 percent of the vote in New Mexico’s Republican primary, equivalent to about 78,716 votes. The remaining 15 percent was distributed among Republican presidential candidates who have already suspended their candidacy, including former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and one option ” uncommitted.”
Haley won 8.6 percent, or 8,016 votes, while about 2,423 — about 2.6 percent — of New Mexico voters chose Christie. Ramaswamy polled nearly 1 percent, about 881 votes, while 3.3 percent chose “uncommitted,” according to results from Decision Desk headquarters.
Although Trump easily won the vast majority of Republican Party primaries this cycle, political observers noted how many votes Haley got in light of her announcement last month that she would support Trump over President Biden in November.
Haley, who served in the Trump administration, garnered tens of thousands of primary votes in recent months and in some states approached or even surpassed 20% of the vote. In the swing states of Arizona and Pennsylvania, she won more than 100,000 votes in each state earlier this year.
Political observers suggest these numbers underscore the apparent frustrations Republicans feel with Trump as the party’s presumptive nominee.
“Many believe these votes are anti-Trump, but there are many who have aligned themselves with his policies and style as a politician,” Ashley Davis, a Republican strategist, told The Hill last month. “These are solid conservative Republicans who will need to break Trump’s path.”
Trump has largely rejected primary votes for Haley, saying last month that she has “very few voters.”
“Well, she got relatively few voters… I got almost, I think, close to 90 percent,” the former president said at the time.
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
