‘Best Possible Candidate For November’: Larry Hogan Endorses Nikki Haley Ahead Of Iowa Caucus
With 24-hours before the monumental Iowa Caucus, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential race.
Hogan joined CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday where he finally revealed the GOP candidate has his backing. Despite endorsing Haley, Hogan noted that it’s “pretty clear” former President Donald Trump will be victorious in Iowa tomorrow.
According to Real Clear Politics, Trump maintains a dominant lead in Iowa with over 50% average support with Haley in second and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis close behind in third. Political analysts and pundits have predicted that a second-place win for Haley tomorrow would give her momentum heading into the New Hampshire primary later this month.
Moderate Republican such as Hogan along with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu are backing Haley as DeSantis continue to crater to third in statewide and national primary polling. CNN anchor Jake Tapper asked Hogan who he’s backing during the Sunday interview.
HOGAN: I think it’s pretty clear that Donald Trump is going to win Iowa tomorrow. There’s not much hope of anybody overtaking him, I think that’s not a big surprise. I don’t think it matters that much because you know for the past 24 years the winner of the Republican caucus in Iowa has not been the nominee. So it’s really about the fight for second place. Ron DeSantis has put all the marbles on Iowa and spent all of his time and money and seems to be going in the wrong direction. I think Nikki Haley’s got all the momentum and what this race is really all about, and is to try to nominate the strongest possible nominee for November. I’m convinced that the momentum is with Nikki Haley that she has the potential of moving into second place, although it being a distant second place, which gives her momentum heading into New Hampshire, where she’s only seven points down. And I think that that’s a real possibility if she could potentially come in second place in Iowa, move on to New Hampshire, it’s possible she could win, which would put her in much better position when she moves into her home state of South Carolina.
TAPPER: So is that an endorsement? Would you like her to get the nomination?
HOGAN: I’ve been saying since last spring when I made the decision not to run that I really did not want to see a multi-car pile up that would just enable Donald Trump. I think we want to have the strongest possible nominee in November. Polls show that that is Nikki Haley, that she’s 17 points ahead of Joe Biden. And it’s a toss up with Trump and Biden and DeSantis is losing. So yes, I think it’s time for the party to get behind Nikki Haley. My friend Chris Christie dropped out of the race in New Hampshire. I appreciate his effort but I believe that Nikki Haley is the strongest chance for us to put forth our best possible candidate for November.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
