Haley, Scott appealing to same donors, voters
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — At a conservative forum Saturday, South Carolina Republicans had a common refrain about two home-state political figures who are eyeing the White House in 2024, former Gov. Nikki Haley and Sen. Tim Scott.
“I like them both.”
It was the first time Haley and Scott had attended the same event during the 2024 campaign, in a key battleground state that fueled their political rise and that will play a critical role as they prepare to square off for the Republican nomination for president, one officially and the other unofficially so far.
The two allies have largely steered clear of each other as they have staked out their respective lanes early in a presidential primary in which the specter of former President Donald Trump looms large. And while Haley and Scott might not be fighting each other, they will almost certainly be fighting for the same voters.
At the forum in North Charleston, Haley and Scott received standing ovations as they entered and left the stage. Each one drew whoops and claps in response to points they made about the teaching of race in schools and problems with the Biden administration.
“It’s going to be virtually impossible to take two from the same state, but that we know,” said Elizabeth Lyons, who moved to Charleston from Connecticut in 2021. Her husband, Michael, chimed in: “I’ll bet you either one or the other of them is going to be the vice presidential candidate in 2024.”
It remains unclear if either Haley or Scott — or both — will generate momentum beyond their in-state stardom. Their toughest task will be winning over Republicans eager for a Trump alternative, as well as a portion of the former president’s hyper-conservative base. The dynamic, some say, has the air of the 2016 GOP primary, in which a crowded field cleared a path for Trump to win.
“They’re both very popular with Republicans in South Carolina,” said Chip Felkel, a veteran South Carolina political consultant who said he is remaining neutral in the primary. “The question is, does their popularity exceed that of the former president?”
Many of those at the forum said they were still undecided as to whom they would nominate for president in 2024. Mary Catherine Landers, 63, was among them. A lifelong Republican voter who moved to Charleston from Indiana in 2018, Landers supported Trump in 2020. But she said she feared some conservatives would stay home if he were nominated again, and that Haley was the draw for her on Saturday.
“I’m excited about both,” Landers said, though she added, “I think personally the one who would have the better chance at this point in time is going to be Nikki.”
Haley, a former ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, launched her campaign for president in February. Scott, the junior senator from South Carolina, has yet to formally declare his candidacy, but he is widely expected to make a decision in the next few weeks.
South Carolina is home to a varied conservative electorate — libertarian-leaning Lowcountry voters, establishment insiders around Columbia’s State Capitol, staunch conservatives along its eastern coast upstate to the North Carolina border. How Haley and Scott ultimately fare in South Carolina will be decided at county party picnics, on the debate stage and, perhaps most importantly, at smaller platforms like the Saturday forum.
The event drew a couple hundred of the party’s most faithful Christian conservative voters and activists. Speakers stoked anxieties about social issues such as abortion and transgender students, railing against what they saw as existential dangers that the next party nominee will be tasked with righting: China’s ascendance on the world stage, the war in Ukraine and ongoing economic uncertainty.