I voted for former President Donald Trump instead of corrupt Hillary Clinton in 2016 and against doddering Joe Biden in 2020.

I strongly supported Trump’s successful agenda to cut taxes, appoint conservative judges, get control of the southern border and eliminate burdensome federal regulations. He deserved the Nobel Peace Prize for driving the Abraham Accords in the Middle East and he saved millions of lives by leading Operation Warp Speed to create the COVID-19 vaccine.

During my time as a columnist for another publication in Denver, I defended Trump against the false Russian collusion charges by Democrats that drove his first impeachment.

But even against that backdrop of those successes, he alienated millions of voters, many of whom previously voted for him in 2016, by his constant childish, self-centered, paranoid behavior as president. As a result, Republicans lost the midterm congressional election in 2018 and Trump was unseated by Biden in 2020. 

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The 2022 midterm election was supposed to be a “Red Wave” against the failed policies of President Biden, but Trump’s stolen-election conspiracy theories bogged down Republican candidates across the nation. Democrats maintained control of the U.S. Senate and narrowly lost the House after Republicans predicted a massive House majority.

Since his 2020 defeat, Trump has been obsessed with false claims of conspiracies that stole the election from him. His behavior on Jan. 6, 2021, when rioters attacked the United States Capitol, was despicable. 

He watched the attack unfold for hours before finally calling for rioters to withdraw from the Capitol. He seemed amused by the rioters’ chants of “Hang Mike Pence” after Vice President Mike Pence declined to participate in an unconstitutional scheme to reverse the results of the Electoral College and deny duly-elected Joe Biden from being sworn in as president.

Trump now claims those rioters who have been prosecuted and convicted are “hostages” and he will grant them pardons if he is elected again.

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has defiantly declared she is staying in the Republican nomination race despite losing to Trump in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada. As this column is being written, it appears she will lose to Trump in her home state of South Carolina, whose primary is Saturday, Feb. 24.

Predictably, Trump has stepped up his highly personal attacks on Haley while demanding she withdraw from the race. He questioned why Haley’s military husband, who is deployed in Africa, is not with her on the campaign trail. This denigration of military service is certainly consistent with his disparagement of the late U.S. Sen. John McCain for being a POW in the Vietnam War.

Trump has declared he will be the president of “retribution” if elected again. He has threatened anyone who continues to donate to Haley.

And this is why Nikki Haley needs to remain in this race.

Although Trump is a defeated former president, he is still a de facto incumbent – yet Haley is getting a significant percentage of the vote even while losing. In New Hampshire’s Republican primary – which, like Colorado’s, is open to unaffiliateds as well as registered Republicans – polls indicated Trump would get more than 60%, but Haley ended up getting 43%.

While Trump’s most fervent supporters love to talk about beating the Republican “establishment,” Haley was beating the good ole’ boy Republican establishment in South Carolina long before Trump showed up.

She defeated a 30-year incumbent Republican legislator before being an underdog candidate for governor in 2010, where she again defeated good ole’ boy Republican establishment candidates. Haley is now paying the price for her victories as all those vanquished foes are supporting Trump in the South Carolina primary. They are putting that woman in her place this time.

Trump won the 2016 election and lost the 2020 election by terribly slim margins and there is no room for error in 2024 even against a pathetic, failed incumbent like President Biden. Trump might be barreling toward winning the Republican nomination but there are still a significant number of Republican primary voters who aren’t drinking the Trump Kool-Aid. 

Trump’s supporters allege Haley is dividing the party and, by staying in the race, is undermining Trump’s ability to win in November.  Some even allege she is a Democratic operative at this point.

But the only person who is undermining Trump’s ability to win in November is Trump. Even if Haley withdrew from the race, that significant percentage of Republican primary voters who don’t support Trump will still exist. 

Haley is a strong candidate with an impressive and successful record as the governor of South Carolina and as the United States ambassador to the United Nations – a post Trump himself appointed her to. Republicans who are deeply concerned about Trump’s behavior and his ability to win in November are supporting Haley at this point as their only option.

Rather than continuing to disparage and threaten those who support Haley, Trump ought to understand he cannot afford to lose in the general election even a small percentage of those who vote for Haley in the primaries. But then, it is so much more fun to try to disparage and threaten voters into voting for you.

Dick Wadhams is a former Colorado Republican state chairman who worked for U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong for nine years before managing campaigns for U.S. Sens. Hank Brown and Wayne Allard, and Gov. Bill Owens.