According to reports, some Iowa Democrats and independents are planning to become ‘Republicans for a day’ to help Nikki Haley win Monday’s caucus.

Donald Trump still has an enormous advantage in the polls over the remaining candidates, so it would take a miraculous effort to get within striking range.

However, some question if this will push Haley into 2nd place in the Iowa caucus.

“Crossover” voting, where voters cast ballots for a party they’re normally unaffiliated, is a “low-key tradition in Iowa’s caucuses,” Axios reports.

It’s unclear how many Democrats and independents will show up to support Haley.

Per Axios:

Iowa allows day-of party registration for voters, and Democrats aren’t holding in-person presidential caucuses this year.

That’s given mischievous anti-Trump voters “a chance to diminish Trump’s inevitability,” as Don McLeese of West Des Moines put it.

McLeese told Axios he’ll be a crossover voter Monday: “I’ll hold my nose and caucus for Haley,” the former UN ambassador who’s been rising in GOP polls.

Lyle Hansen, a Republican precinct captain for Haley in Cedar Rapids, acknowledges that “there could be a good crossover” vote for Haley because Democrats “get to come over and pick the candidate for Biden to oppose.”

Hansen speaks from experience, having crossed over to vote in the Democratic caucus in 2016 in order to vote against Hillary Clinton.

The Post Millennial added:

Democrats, said a Republican precinct captain in Cedar Rapids, “get to come over and pick the candidate for Joe Biden to oppose.” That will definitely not be former President Donald Trump given how he’s beating Biden in polls on the hypothetical rematch nationwide.

Haley is in second place behind Trump after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis slipped to third in polling. Vivek Ramaswamy, still in the race, is polling in single digits behind the other three. Trump, however, holds a commanding lead both in Iowa and across the country as the GOP favorite.

While it is unlikely that any amount of Democrat crossover could secure a win for Haley, but GOP strategist David Kochel said that even if “5,000 or 7,500 people across the state cross over for her, that might be the difference between her and Ron DeSantis.”

 

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