Quote:GEORGETOWN, South Carolina, Feb 24 (Reuters) - As Donald Trump comes close to clinching a third presidential nomination, anti-Trump Republicans are facing a sobering reality: Their party is unlikely to revert to what it was before the MAGA wave rolled in, and they now have no obvious political home.
For Ken Baeszler, who consistently voted Republican until Trump and his Make America Great Again movement transformed the party, that political scenario is disconcerting.
"The Republican Party part of me that's left is hoping Ronald Reagan jumps out from the grave and saves us all," said Baeszler, a 65-year-old retiree, as he attended a rally for Trump challenger Nikki Haley on a recent sunny afternoon in Georgetown, South Carolina.
"It leaves me in a quandary," he added of Trump's likely victory over Haley for the Republican nomination, including an expected win in Saturday's South Carolina primary. Baeszler said he may ultimately vote for No Labels, referring to the third party seeking to field another option in the November presidential election.
Baeszler's sense of being unmoored was echoed widely in interviews with 15 other Republican or Republican-leaning Haley supporters in South Carolina this week.
Six of those Haley supporters said they also would likely vote for a third-party option if the choice is between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden in November. Four said they would back Trump given his conservative values. Four others said they would support Biden because they saw Trump as unfit for office. One said she wasn't sure.
The voter snapshot highlights how Trump has alienated part of the Republican Party in a way that could hurt him in his likely rematch against Biden. Haley supporters cited a litany of reasons for not wanting to vote for Trump, including his repeated lies about having won the 2020 election against Biden and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
A Suffolk University/USA TODAY poll released this week found that majorities of Haley supporters polled - both Republicans and independents - had unfavorable opinions of Trump, suggesting a portion would vote for Biden, a third party or stay at home, according to David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-r...024-02-24/