Trump could impede Nikki Haley’s ability to navigate factions in the Republican Party
When Nikki Haley was a South Carolina legislator, she backed budgets boosted by federal aid. Running for governor, she criticized a “bailout culture” and dependence on Washington.
She once called the Confederate battle flag a heritage symbol and sidestepped calls to remove it from statehouse grounds. After a racist massacre in Charleston, Haley moved to take it down.
When Donald Trump ran for president in 2016, she opposed him before joining his administration as U.N. ambassador. Now, Haley is running against Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination saying he is an agent of chaos.
For almost 20 years, Haley has worked to navigate Republicans’ rightward march, trying to cultivate both the GOP establishment and the firebrand conservative base that gave rise to Trump. She is seen as either a pragmatic unifier or a finger to-the-wind politician, and as she seeks the Republican nomination, her political pivots have become her opponents’ most persistent line of attack.
“Maybe she can be a bit of a chameleon,” said former state Rep. Doug Brannon, a fellow Republican. “The governor and I did not get along,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean that she isn’t a brilliant politician.”
Shapeshifting is a long practiced political art. Bill Clinton earned the nickname “Slick Willie” and won two terms in the White House. Trump went from being emphatically supportive of abortion rights to telling voters he alone was responsible for the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, winning over white evangelicals.
In the 2024 campaign, Haley has leaned into her critics. Trump skipping debates has meant she and the former president have not confronted each other face to face but she has forcefully defended herself against his suggestions that she is out of step with today’s Republican Party.
“For those reporting that I’m a moderate, I will ask you or anybody, Trump or anybody in Fox (News) suits saying that I’m not a conservative: Name one thing that I wasn’t conservative about,” she said Friday in New Hampshire.
She offered a litany of measures she signed as governor to lower taxes, boost voter identification requirements and overhaul public employee pensions, among other matters. “The difference is who is deciding who’s conservative and who’s moderate,” she said.