CNN
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Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley entered the Republican primary in February with a call for “generational change.” But his message has been largely drowned out by former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who are battling for support from the GOP’s right-wing base.
Sunday night, however, at a live CNN town hall in Iowa, Haley will have her clearest chance yet to distinguish herself from the growing Republican presidential field and make the case that she is the best candidate to unseat Trump in the primary. next year and then defeat President Joe Biden in the fall.
Haley’s early poll numbers among Republicans have been tame. Like so many others now flooding the race, he tends to fit in with those currently receiving support in the single digits, laps behind Trump and DeSantis. A moderate, at least in the current context of the Republican Party, Haley is trying to forge a coalition of Trump-weary, anti-Trump GOP voters along with part of the former president’s conservative base.
So far, she has drawn some criticism for not giving clear answers to her own political agenda and her attempts to balance her criticism of Trump — and Trumpism — with the fact that she served in his administration as ambassador to the United States United in the United Nations.
Now, with the first round of primary debates on the horizon, Haley will have a chance to clarify her views and make her case to a national audience ahead of more campaign announcements this coming week, including expected entries from the ‘former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.
Here are four things to keep in mind:
When asked about the most divisive issue in contemporary politics, Haley has repeatedly said that her primary goal is to find consensus on abortion.
Personally, he has no reservations against abortion. But what that means in practice, and in a campaign where candidates are pressed for specific information, has been harder to figure out. He recently passed a federal ban on abortion, while warning that conservatives need to get real and admit they don’t have, and probably won’t have, the votes in Washington to make it happen.
“I’m not going to lie to the American people. Nothing is going to happen if we don’t get 60 votes in the Senate. We’re not even close to that on the Republican or Democratic side,” Haley recently told CBS News. “Why try to divide people further?”
During her time as governor of the Palmetto State, Haley signed a 20-week abortion ban. This was, he said, the most ambitious bill that could be passed at the time. Late last month, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster, Haley’s successor and former lieutenant governor, signed a six-week ban, though a state judge has since temporarily blocked the new restrictions from taking effect.
After Haley’s comments to CBS News, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the anti-abortion Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, cast the former governor as a defeatist.
“The pro-life movement must have a candidate who will boldly advocate for that consensus, and as president he will work tirelessly to gather the necessary votes in Congress,” Dannenfelser said. “Dismissing this task as unrealistic is not acceptable.”
How Haley answers the question this time, and whether she’s willing to offer more of a plan than an observation, will be instructive about her view of the issue and her role in the campaign.
Haley has so far tried to avoid any direct conflict with Trump, instead training her ire more directly on DeSantis and only criticizing the former president in vague terms.
“We are ready to move beyond the outdated ideas and faded names of the past,” Haley said in February. “And we are more than ready for a new generation to lead us into the future.”
Haley also proposed a mental competency test for politicians over 75, a group that, in the context of this campaign, includes only Trump and Biden, who at one point suggested they were unlikely to live out a second term in office As for DeSantis, he has mostly been referred to as a carbon copy of Trump.
In one of his most talked about campaign ads, called “A choice, not an echo,” Haley’s campaign portrayed DeSantis as an empty vessel and even highlighted what some have described as DeSantis’ efforts to mimic Trump’s hand gestures.
However, he has mostly criticized DeSantis’ (and Trump’s, to a lesser extent) refusal to commit to supporting Ukraine as it fights back against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Russia.
Whether and to what extent he focuses on the issue, which has become a point of contention between the GOP establishment and the MAGA wings, will say something about his campaign strategy going forward.
Haley has framed her decision to successfully push to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina state Capitol as evidence of her ability to forge deals out of seemingly intractable debates.
But on the campaign trail, he has repeatedly exploited the Republican backlash to transgender rights and other social and cultural divisions.
“I’m running for president to renew an America that is proud and strong, not weak and woke,” Haley said in a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in March. “The awakening is a more dangerous virus than any pandemic, without a doubt.”
Like her rivals, Haley has been less clear about what “woke” means properly, a habit that even Trump has now criticized, and has sought to make personal attacks on transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, whose involvement in a ad campaign for Bud Light beer enraged the right. -extremes
“Let me tell you something: I know there are transgender people. This is not a transgender person. This is a guy who dresses up as a girl who makes fun of women,” Haley said of Mulvaney, mistaking the ‘star of the social networks, in a riff that he has repeated in front of several audiences.
That line might play well with staunch conservatives and activists, but polls — and the results of the 2022 election — suggest there’s a broader base of Americans who may be less receptive. The Sunday night question: How much does he lean on this offensive line?
The rise of populist politics within the GOP has further complicated the establishment party’s talk of “entitlement reform,” or long-term plans to cut public funding for popular programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Combined with the fact that the aging Republican electorate is increasingly reluctant to support plans that could diminish their current or future benefits, what was once party dogma is now a third way, even with many conservatives .
Haley’s solution: Call for changing the retirement age for Americans who are currently 20 and capping Social Security and Medicare benefits for the wealthiest Americans.
“What you would do is, for those in their 20s coming into the system, we would change the retirement age to match life expectancy,” he told Fox News in March.
Will Haley be more specific when pressed on the proposal? And how does the case given his party’s recent escape from the issue? The answers, again, will set the stage for a busy week ahead.
