While former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has surged ahead of Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis, presidential campaign adviser Dick Morris tells Newsmax that "there's no prize for second place."
"I think that nobody's told Haley that there's no prize for second place," Morris told "Saturday Report." "You don't get to be vice president by finishing second. You get to be vice president by somebody picking you for VP who's finished first."
Despite the polling surge in the anti-Trump vote, Haley's break from former President Donald Trump likely precludes her from being a vice presidential candidate.
Republican establishment forces like former House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., are trying to work against Trump, but this GOP primary cycle is showing the establishment to be on the wrong side of GOP voters, particularly when it comes Social Security and entitlements, Morris told host Rita Cosby.
"I think Haley hurt herself very badly this week when she came out in favor of raising the retirement age on Social Security and cutting back cost of living benefits," Morris continued. "That's the same positions that former House Speaker Ryan proposed and DeSantis embraced. It was a key negative, a key reason why DeSantis has fallen so badly in the polling.
"And now Nikki Haley is echoing exactly that position."
One New Hampshire poll has Haley surging to second and DeSantis falling to fifth — behind Trump, Haley, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy.
While Iowa, New Hampshire, and Haley's home state of South Carolina are key early caucus/primary states in the GOP-nominating cycle, it is the larger battleground states that are key to the 2024 presidential election: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Like the popular vote, national general election polls are nothing more than water-cooler items that have little to do with winning the Electoral College and the presidential election, Morris concluded.
"The important thing to do is to really focus on state-by-state polling," Morris said, pointing to battleground state polling that has Trump winning almost every swing state noted above.
"Those are the polls I think really make the most difference. Bear in mind that if there is a 50-50 vote. In the popular vote, Trump still wins by a little bit in the Electoral College.
"But when you look at the swing states, Trump has led."
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