MY TURN: Idaho Republicans — caucus for Haley?

I'm asking Idaho Republicans statewide to caucus for Nikki Haley on Saturday, March 2. No, I do not think that she will wrest the GOP nomination from Donald Trump at this late date. Nor does one need to attack Trump to support Haley. Instead, a vote for Haley is three things: 

1. It presents her as the strongest, most obvious choice for vice president on the Republican ticket, with delegates enough to influence the upcoming July convention and its platform discussions. 

2. It makes her the nominee-in-waiting, should any event keep Trump off the ballot in November. 

3. It confirms her as a leading Presidential Candidate for 2028, with a bright and positive vision for the nation and party. 

In fact, Haley even appears to have a potentially strong and unsuspected level of support in our state. Over a three-day period, I caused an "unscientific" survey to be conducted at Albertsons, Walmart and WinCo parking lots and on Main Street in the Boise area, seeking to learn the level of comparative support for these two candidates from people identifying themselves as "Republicans likely to vote in the upcoming caucus." Of 66 respondents, 33 supported Trump and 20 were for Haley, with 13 undecided. Fourteen did not know anything about Haley, but 26 of the 33 Idaho Trump supporters would be "open to support Haley in the future, when Trump is not on the ballot." 

I attended the 1976 Republican Convention in Kansas City as the leader of a small number of Idaho delegates elected in the May primary to support then incumbent President Gerald Ford. However, a large majority of our Delegation had been chosen to cast votes on the floor for the more conservative candidate, Ronald Reagan as the nominee. Ford won the nomination, narrowly, after an energetic and engaging few days of platform debates and floor speeches which focused the nation's attention, catapulted Ronald Reagan to the presidency four years later and subsequently gave the Republicans the White House for 12 years. 

Likewise, America in 2024 needs a broad-based, viable, inclusive and vigorous GOP, squarely poised to win this and the next few national elections to assure that we "Save the Republic" from its current troubled condition and unresolved issues. A second Trump term in 2024 may be an inevitable step in that direction. However, a caucus vote in Idaho for Nikki Haley is also a very important signal of our long-term commitment to an America revived by embracing youth, women, minorities, conservative principles and limited government. A Haley ballot also says that we are a "Big Tent" Republican Party well prepared to debate, discuss and lead for the future. 

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David Leroy, former Idaho lieutenant governor and attorney general, and is co-chair of Idahoans for Haley for President.