Republicans have lost the Senate and the White House in the last three years because our leading candidate is running for revenge, not for us.

If you don’t want Biden’s failed policies to win again, then how about backing a candidate who beats him by 17 points in a recent Wall Street Journal poll? Yes, while Trump and Biden go back and forth by a point or two in the contest, we have a way to get good policies back without the drama, and that means voting for former governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley.

A proven conservative who showed her strength on the world stage as Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley has the respect and recognition we need at the top of our party’s ticket.

Years ago legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi summed up his view on the competitive nature of football when he said “Winning isn’t everything, it is the only thing.”

I think my fellow Republicans and intelligent undeclared voters want to see a viable candidate come out of our first in the nation primary on Jan. 23. The Trump show is seven years old and the blue suit and red tie need to be put away so the party can govern again.

That can only happen if we have an enthusiastic, tough candidate who has been battle-tested. We don’t need to be dragged down by invoking “Mein Kampf” and David Duke. It is hard to believe a former leader of our very racially, ethnically and religiously diverse land came to our state last week and spoke in Durham of people coming here “poisoning the blood of this country.” Wow! I have not seen that type of quote except from one of the Ku Klux Klan’s Imperial Wizards. And if Trump’s bullhorn is calling for a return to an all white Christian America he is over 400 years too late.

A great political party can’t win by appealing to neo-Nazis and unreconstructed Southerners. We win by broad positive appeals to the better nature of your friends and neighbors here and across the other 49 states.

Nikki is likable and reasonable. Gov. Haley can help us move on to the best of the Trump policies without baggage carts piled high to divert attention. Looking toward winning for the party Nikki Haley says she will do it “with no drama, no vendettas, no whining.”

Vince Lombardi was right — let’s win for a change!

Chuck Douglas of Pembroke is a former conservative congressman, New Hampshire Supreme Court justice and is the publisher of The Bow Times newspaper.