Ben Jacobs reports from Iowa:
Almost immediately after Trump lost reelection, [Nikki Haley] began a shadow campaign for the White House and started stumping in Iowa in 2021. The campaign has been defined by an almost methodical vagueness that has let her steadily persist while other hyped-up challengers to Trump have either given up, like Tim Scott, or stumbled like DeSantis. The result has made her the default candidate of Republican voters least favorable to Trump, who are more like Paul Ryan acolytes than Never Trumpers.
That wing of the party resides in places like Ankeny, a sprawling new development designed as a walkable community complete with an ersatz downtown — sports bar, video-game bar, bowling alley — for those who want nightlife without the big-city thrills of Des Moines. It could be any prosperous suburb in the country packed with college-educated, white-collar voters. But it’s in Iowa and is unlike much of the rest of the state, which is aging, rural, and blue collar — in other words, Trump country. In 2016, Marco Rubio was jokingly dubbed “the Mayor of Ankeny” for the amount of time he spent there, winning it handily in the caucuses, but he finished third place behind Trump, who finished second, and Ted Cruz, who finished first. Then as now, there are not enough places like Ankeny for an establishment Republican to win the state outright. Of course, since then, the party has trended further away from the polite suburbanites who politely clapped for Haley rather fervently waving their sign and toward the blue-collar voters who line up for hours to see Trump speak and remain standing long after he takes the podium.
