It was a fitting end to Ron DeSantis’ ill-fated campaign: The Florida governor’s departure from the race seemed orchestrated to inflict the maximum damage on Nikki Haley ahead of New Hampshire, and not front-runner Donald Trump. There has always been a fantasy football flavor to the Haley-DeSantis rivalry. The duo consistently trained their fire on each other — hoping to emerge as the only viable alternative to Trump in a two-person race — rather than going after the former president directly.
DeSantis could have helped Haley ignite some magical New Hampshire momentum by following in Chris Christie’s footsteps and dropping out with a rousing call to stop Trump. Instead, he kicked sideways on his way out the door, throwing cold water on Team Haley’s dreams with a devastating Trump endorsement.
Haley may still pull out an old-fashioned New Hampshire miracle. But on Sunday afternoon it felt like DeSantis was acknowledging what national polls have reflected for some time: Donald Trump was always going to be the candidate Republicans sent to this Super Bowl.
Still, he remains a vulnerable potential candidate in the general election, with both Iowa results and New Hampshire polls showing nearly half of Republicans support a candidate other than Trump.
The problem for hopefuls like Haley and DeSantis is that there is not enough common ground between the roughly 50% who love Trump and the roughly 50% who do not. Notably, around 25% of likely Iowa caucusgoers said in an NBC News poll this month that they would not vote for Trump in the general. President Joe Biden might be able to pull some of these unhappy conservatives his way. And the sooner the Republican primary ends, the sooner Biden can start making that case to those voters.
Don't miss any major updates from the New Hampshire primary. Follow MSNBC's live blog coverage here.
