WARRENDALE, Pa. — Nikki Haley told voters to put their feelings aside about “noisy” former President Donald Trump and cast ballots for him during a pair of stops in swing-state Pennsylvania on Wednesday.
Campaigning for Republican Senate candidate Dave McCormick in suburbs near Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and one-time GOP presidential candidate, told voters to “pull the emotion out” and “focus on the policies,” adding, “it’s not about us” but future generations.
“I know it’s noisy out there,” Haley told voters near Pittsburgh. “When I tell you to take the emotion out and focus on the policies, Dave McCormick can’t win if we don’t elect Donald Trump at the top of the ticket.”
Haley and McCormick drew a considerable crowd at a bar in Warrendale, where some attendees wore Trump campaign apparel. When Haley said “you may find Trump noisy,” a handful of attendees expressed disagreement.
“But he understands we’ve got to get this economy turned around,” she added. “He understands that we have to fight what’s happening across the border, he understands that we have to be energy dominant, and he understands that we can’t have anymore wars.”
Haley was the last remaining challenger to Trump in this year’s Republican primary, and she was deeply critical of him at times. Even after she dropped out, roughly 160,000 Pennsylvania Republicans voted for her in the primary. Vice President Kamala Harris is heavily targeting this segment of the electorate, in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, but it remains unclear how they will break on Election Day.
At her earlier rally with McCormick in Pennsburg, Haley made a similar appeal to attendees to back Trump at the ballot box.
“We have to do more than just elect Dave McCormick,” she said. “We have to elect Donald Trump because if Donald Trump wins Pennsylvania, Dave McCormick wins Pennsylvania.”
Haley, who spoke at the Republican National Convention this summer, has yet to appear on the trail with Trump. A senior Trump campaign adviser told NBC News on Monday that a joint appearance between the two former rivals was looking unlikely because it’s been a challenge to find a time that fits into both of their schedules.
Speaking with Fox News on Tuesday, Haley said “we are on standby” for a rally, adding, “There’s no bad blood between me and the president.”
“We want Donald Trump to win,” she said. “I respect his campaign and what they need. If they need something, they will call and ask me.”
But in that same interview, Haley criticized Trump’s “overly masculine” rally at Madison Square Garden on Sunday, calling out a comedian’s racist jokes about Puerto Rico, Latinos and Black Americans. The comedian faced similar condemnation from other Republicans, too.
“This bromance and masculinity stuff, it borders on edgy to the point that it’s going to make women uncomfortable,” Haley said.
“You have got affiliated PACs doing commercials about calling Kamala the ‘c’ word or speakers at Madison Square Garden, you know, referring to her and her ‘pimps,’” Haley added. “That is not the way to win women. That is not the way to win people who are concerned about Trump’s style.”
Haley was referring to a video published on X by Elon Musk’s super PAC calling Harris the “c-word” before then saying she was “communist.” The spot was deleted from America PAC’s account Monday.
At the rally near Pittsburgh, speakers stressed the importance the state’s races would have nationally.
“What happens here will decide the presidency,” McCormick said. “It will decide the majority in the Senate.”
Some made explicit appeals to Democrats to cross over and back McCormick, too.
State Sen. Camera Bartolotta, a Republican who spoke before Haley and McCormick, called on attendees to contact Democratic family members and relatives and encourage them to cast ballots for the Republican Senate nominee.
“Some are just not going to vote Trump,” she said, adding that McCormick could still be sold to Democrats.
“We have to do this,” she said. “This is a neck-and-neck race. This is a photo finish. You can put Dave McCormick over the finish line.”
