Sorry, Haley. Democrats probably won’t help you avoid disaster in South Carolina.

Longtime operatives in both parties cast the scale of these efforts as “hyper-elevated,” if not unprecedented, even in a state where some crossover voting is the norm. The push has infuriated many Republicans and some Democrats — and has
reignited the debate over whether South Carolina, which does not require voter registration, should limit its primaries to party members.

And there are other factors working against those trying to draw Democrats into the GOP primary. The state Democratic Party has threatened retaliation against Democrats who cast ballots in the Republican contest. And Haley’s relationship with Black South Carolinians — who make up the bulk of the state’s Democratic voters — has been fraught since her days in the governor’s office.

Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina-based Democratic strategist, said Haley and her allies are trying to show they can cobble together a broader coalition — and “lower the severity of the blow” she’s expected to sustain today.

But “I don’t think she’s going to get a lot of Democrats to participate,” he said.

Haley-aligned groups and outside organizations believe they have a large pool of Democratic-leaning voters to pull from. Just 131,000 people voted in the Democratic primary earlier this month, down substantially from the nearly 540,000 people who voted in the same contest in 2020. If even a small percentage of those people vote in the Republican primary, strategists behind Democratic voter outreach efforts argue, it could make a difference for Haley.

A mailer sent by Haley’s issue advocacy group, Stand for America Inc., reminds voters that they “do not need to be a registered Republican” to participate in the GOP primary. “Democracy counts on your participation,” the
mailer obtained by POLITICO reads. “It is not too late to make your voice heard.”

Meanwhile, SFA Fund Inc., a pro-Haley super PAC, is explicitly urging voters who sat out the Democratic contest to cast ballots for Haley, according to a
mailer first reported by NBC News.

And at least two groups unaligned with Haley, Progressive Source PAC and Primary Pivot, are trying to sway voters to cast ballots for her as a protest of Trump.

Progressive Source PAC has spent nearly $10,000 on digital ads targeted toward South Carolina’s blue districts encouraging Democrats and independents to cast ballots for Haley in the GOP primary — and reminding them they can then vote for President Joe Biden in November. The group’s
YouTube video had racked up more than 360,000 views as of primary eve.

“Haley’s Democratic and independent voters are the wild card in this race,” said Jonathan Greenberg, the California-based journalist and prominent Trump critic who founded the political action committee. “We do feel that what we’re doing will make an impact and can help her narrow her predicted loss.”

Primary Pivot has blasted out two rounds of text messages to roughly 207,000 Democrats and independents urging them to cast ballots in the GOP primary, one ahead of the Democratic primary and another on the eve of the Republican contest. The group is running ads on Facebook and on Instagram, and on Thursday placed a $15,000 ad buy targeting suburban Democrats on major radio stations in Columbia, Charleston and Greenville, according to one of its co-founders, liberal activist Robert Schwartz.

Still, Schwartz said, those efforts are at best likely to nudge Haley only a few points closer to Trump.

“We’re just trying to help Nikki Haley do a little better,” Schwartz said. “But we’re realistic that she’s going to lose to Trump by a pretty wide margin.”