Map Shows States Where Anti-Donald Trump Vote Could Cost Him Election

Donald Trump could face difficulties in certain states in the presidential election, given a large proportion of Republicans voted for Nikki Haley in Super Tuesday primary votes.

The former president increased his number of delegates to 995 on Tuesday, according to the latest update from the Associated Press, after 15 states and one territory voted in Republican primaries across the country.

With a candidate needing 1,215 delegates to secure the nomination, the votes were a resounding success for Trump, and reaffirmed expectations that he will run against the Democratic incumbent Joe Biden in November's presidential election.

But Haley, the former South Carolina governor who was Trump's remaining rival in the GOP primary race before she announced she was quitting, performed moderately well in a number of states, showing that Republican support for the former president is not unanimous.

Indeed Haley, who is a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, won the primary in Vermont, with 49.9 percent of the vote to Trump's 45.9 percent. She also performed well in other states, including Virginia, North Carolina and New Hampshire.

A number of moderate Republicans and Haley supporters have indicated they would never vote for Trump meaning that he may struggle to garner a large support base in states where Haley was popular.

The map below shows the states where Haley polled best, which could therefore emerge as weak spots for Trump in November's presidential election.

Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.

Speaking on Fox News, former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove raised concerns about Republican Party unity.

"The high command of Team Trump ought to be concerned about unifying the Republican Party," he said. "There's still some work to be done to unify the Republican Party and that's going to depend a lot on his tone tonight and whether or not he stops doing things like calling [Haley] 'Bird Brain' and threatening that if you give money to her campaign you're going to be permanently banned.

"He did well in Iowa with his victory statement, unifying, humble, gracious. Not so good in New Hampshire, and tonight is going to be the big night and he's gonna set an important tone for either a unified Republican Party or a divided Republican Party."

Scott Lucas, a professor in International Politics at University College Dublin, told Newsweek the Republican Party is very divided and Haley and her supporters may not switch their allegiance to Trump.

He said: "Nikki Haley stayed in the race not because she thought she could win it but she stayed in it for Super Tuesday because a lot of people behind her, a lot of Republican members, a lot of Republican donors are very unsettled about Donald Trump. They're very unsettled about his legal problems, they're very unsettled because he's unpredictable, they're very unsettled because of the damage that he can cause on domestic issues and on foreign policy."