Donald Trump given warning sign about 2024 race with Indiana primary

•  Nikki Haley received more than 128,000 votes in the Indiana Republican primary
• Trump needs to consolidate Republican support as he looks ahead to November 
• READ MORE:  Haley continues to rake in votes despite dropping out

Donald Trump faced warning signs in Indiana on Tuesday as more than 128,000 voters in the Republican primary chose to cast ballots for another candidate despite him being the presumptive GOP presidential nominee and having no opponents in the race.

Trump received more than 78.3 percent of the vote in the red state’s primary on Tuesday, more than 461,000 voters.

But more than 128,000 voters, 21 percent, cast ballots for Nikki Haley, the one time Republican presidential candidate who dropped out of the race more than two months ago after Super Tuesday.

Despite having a strong hold on the majority of the Republican party, the results Tuesday signal trouble for the former Republican president as he looks to shore up GOP support and expand his base for the general election in November.

Indiana held its open Republican presidential primary on Tuesday where Haley received a sizable number of votes despite dropping out of the race two months ago

Indiana is a red states that voted overwhelming for Trump in 2020 with 57 percent of the vote against Joe Biden. The ex-president even expanded his support in the state from 2016.

In the last twenty-one presidential elections, Democrats have only won the state two times: Lyndon Johnson in 1964 and Barack Obama in 2008.

But Tuesday’s results are just the latest in a series of primaries where a number of voters to cast Republican ballots of opted not to fall in line since Trump cinched the necessary number of delegates.

‘Nikki dropped out two months ago and is still earning a sizable chunk of the primary vote,’ said a former Haley staffer. ‘You’d have to be a birdbrain to not understand that Trump needs Haley Republicans to win in November.’

Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee and has turned his attention to the general election but Haley continues to receive GOP primary votes while Trump should be shoring up the party base

Just two weeks ago, Haley received more than 155,000 voters in the Pennsylvania Republican primary, a significant number in a battleground state Biden won by less than 100,000 voters in 2020.

Haley raked in more than half a million votes combined in the March 19 primaries including ones in Florida, Ohio and Arizona, weeks after she dropped out of the race.

While the ex-president was able to clinch the nomination much earlier this year than has been seen in past non-incumbent primaries, Haley has not come forward to endorse her one time boss and political opponent.

In response to Indiana’s results, a Trump campaign official pointed out that the state has an open primary, meaning any registered voter may participate in either of the party’s primaries, and Democrats had few competitive contests.

Haley received a significant number of her votes around in Indianapolis and surrounding suburbs.

Nikki Haley received more than half a million votes in the March 19 primaries despite dropping out of the race the day after Super Tuesday. On Tuesday she received 128,000 votes in Indiana’s Republican presidential primary

The Trump campaign official argued Democrats in earlier contests were more than happy to vote for Haley and were in fact encouraged through funded campaigns to do so.

The Trump campaign having clinched the necessary delegates for Trump to be the nominee weeks ago has not spent money or resources on the primary campaign.

They said they would win Indiana and the White House come November.

But the Biden campaign has been chomping at the bit to woo Haley voters to support the president in November.

President Joe Biden’s campaign has been actively courting Nikki Haley voters for the general election

President Biden has openly invited Haley voters to join the fold. The campaign even released an ad making a direct appeal to Haley voters to support Biden and reject Trump in late March. It targeted those primarily in suburban battleground areas where Haley did will in the primaries against Trump.

Meanwhile, Trump has been trapped in a New York courtroom the better part of the past three weeks with limited campaign stops in battleground states as he faces criminal charges for falsifying business records in the hush money case.

When not in court, the ex-president has focused much of his campaign effort on battleground states.

Last week, he made stops in Michigan and Wisconsin. This weekend he is headed to Wildwood, New Jersey for a campaign rally.

As for Haley, last month is was announced she was joining the conservative Hudson  Institute, her first big move since dropping out of the primary on March 6.

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