Trump's campaign is in talks with Nikki Haley to join him on the campaign trail and close the gender gap with Harris

CNN
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Former President Donald Trump's campaign is in talks with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley to join him in the final days of the 2024 race as he seeks to broaden his appeal among female voters, two said Sources familiar with the discussions told CNN.

No final dates for the events have been announced, but some of the discussions have focused on a possible joint appearance at a Fox News town hall in late October, the sources said.

The talks were first reported by The Bulwark.

Trump has held a series of town halls moderated by prominent Republican women, including governors. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Kristi Noem, though GOP activists acknowledge Haley could attract a different kind of voter.

“The gender gap is real,” a source close to Trump told CNN. “Haley attracts a different kind of voter. She receives a lot of positive media coverage and appeals to women who are unsure about Donald Trump.”

“We're seeing Republican candidates struggling with women, and that includes Donald Trump,” a GOP activist told CNN. “Haley helps with that.”

Trump's senior advisers privately admit that some female voters don't necessarily like Trump as a person or his rhetoric, but they believe he could win them over with his policies.

The campaign has also touted Haley's support of Trump in battleground states. A billboard recently put up in a Milwaukee suburb read: “Endorsed by Nikki Haley.”

Haley, Trump's former GOP primary rival, endorsed the former president at the Republican National Convention in July, where she was given a prime-time speaking slot after intense backlash from a sect of the party.

While she continued to highlight her differences with Trump and criticized his rhetoric and personal attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris, Haley recently lent her voice in support of the former president in a robocall to voters. In that call, she admitted that she didn't agree with the former president “100% of the time” but argued that he was the better candidate.

She has not yet appeared with Trump on the campaign trail.

The discussions over how to deploy Haley on the trail come after Trump's former U.N. ambassador sharply criticized the former president during her primary campaign while presenting herself as a more moderate alternative within the GOP.

When asked in an interview with Fox News on Friday whether he expects to recruit more women to the campaign trail — like his wife and daughter Melania and Ivanka Trump — to appeal to female voters, Trump said: “I think that “I’m doing very well.” with women. And I think this is all nonsense. I see the polls and we’re doing well.”

When specifically asked about Haley's possible use on the trail, Trump replied: “I'll do what I have to do.”

He then emphasized his dominance in the GOP primary field, saying, “But let me just tell you, Nikki Haley and I fought and I beat her by 50, 60, 90 points. “I took her with me in her own state Hitting numbers that no one has ever been beaten with.”

He added that “everyone keeps saying” Haley should campaign for him, but no one is advising him to ask Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to campaign for him.

“I like Nikki…Nikki, I don't think she should have done what she did and it's okay that she did it,” he said, before again highlighting his loss to Haley in the primary and added: “They say, 'Oh when is Nikki coming back?' Nikki is there. Nikki is already helping us.”

However, Trump and his campaign have been seeking female voters lately, advocating for a Fox News town hall with all female voters in Georgia earlier this week.

Senior aides also hoped that support from Robert Kennedy Jr., who supported Trump during the campaign, could help the female demographic, particularly conservative mothers. According to a recent Pew Research Center poll, women were more likely to support Kennedy than men, although other polls showed no significant difference.