Before this week, 54-year-old Kathy Rice had never been to any 2024 campaign appearances, but when former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley scheduled a town hall in her hometown, Rice decided to see what all the fuss was about. She came to hear Haley speak on the economy, immigration, and foreign policy, the three main topics on her mind.
Rice remarked, “She’s great,” as the latter left. She has a lot of influence. We can all relate to her. And she gets it.”
It was almost an endorsement, but not quite.
“We’re lucky here in New Hampshire that we get a chance to see so many different candidates,” she remarked.
Haley has been steadily climbing the polls in New Hampshire over the past few weeks, and now she is in second place there, trailing only former President Donald Trump but pulling farther ahead of the other contenders who are trying to consolidate the state’s non-Trump vote. Despite the former president’s massive advantage, Haley’s team is hoping she can seal the deal with undecided voters like Rice as she runs on her record as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations and the six years she led the Palmetto State.
Early state voters, who are notorious for breaking late in ways that contradict conventional thought, might yet shock the country and back someone who isn’t the former president, which would be the best case scenario for the campaign. Many voters are still open to being courted at this time.
“We’ve got to do whatever it takes to save America,” Haley declared at her second town hall of the day, held in Raymond. But to accomplish that goal, “courage” from everyone in the room (and the overflow) is required.
Last Monday, a poll conducted by the American Research Network and the University of New Hampshire found that she had gained the support of 20% of potential GOP primary voters, up from 12% in September. Among Republican primary voters, 42% backed Trump, 14% backed Christie, 9% backed DeSantis, and 8% backed IT entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy. A majority of prospective Republican primary voters in the state (52%) have already chosen a candidate.
After seeing Haley perform well in the debates and seeing her early state poll numbers improve in key early voting states like New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Iowa, Republican megadonors have taken notice. But the rise has also brought harsher criticism from her opponents, who are particularly concerned with her track record on foreign affairs.
Warfare on many fronts
Her main adversaries have criticised her qualifications from every angle. DeSantis and the super PAC backing him have pounded her from the right, going after her efforts luring Chinese business to South Carolina when she served as governor from 2011 to 2017.
She has had heated discussions with Ramaswamy, who has tried to portray her as a hawk throughout the three primary debates they have had so far. He mockingly congratulated her in the first debate on her future positions on the boards of defence contractors and in the third debate he referred to her as “Dick Cheney in three-inch heels,” a reference to the unpopular former vice president and his role in shaping foreign policy under former President George W. Bush.
Several of her adversaries grabbed at the opportunity to slam her idea earlier this month that all social media users should be confirmed by identity, which she characterised as a national security risk. Eventually, Haley reversed course on the policy.
On the trail, however, those memories don’t always stick. 59-year-old Barrington office manager Kay Vasile didn’t know about the social media proposal when she went to the Raymond town hall.
However, Haley’s remarks regarding veterans’ concerns, the effect of these policies on families, and the necessity of improving mental health care had a deep impression on her. Haley’s husband is a South Carolina National Guard soldier who is now serving in Afghanistan. When it was Vasile’s turn in the photo queue after the town hall, she brought up veterans’ care because her husband had served in the Air Force for 37 years.
“I just thanked her for that and let her know that, you know, it’s true,” she explained. In his words, “when he came back from Iraq it was – the guard base did as good as they could with integrating and helping that, but it needs to be longer.”
She still has to do more investigating.
I agree with a lot of what Chris Christie says. She lamented, “(Former Vice President) Mike Pence and (former South Carolina Senator) Tim) Scott will be missed. “So, she’s my next one.”
Haley has held over 60 events in the state, spanning 10 counties, since she first announced her presidential candidature in February. As evidence of the “depth of support” she has in New Hampshire, her team revealed the list of delegates who will be attending the Republican National Convention on her behalf next summer.
The campaign just announced a $10 million ad buy reservation in New Hampshire and Iowa across internet, TV and radio.
Veteran New Hampshire GOP strategist Jim Merrill said, “We have a long way to go and there’s going to be continued movement within the field here.” But I believe that her success in New Hampshire is the result of her hard work and dedication.
Many Republican and independent voters still haven’t made up their minds about who they’ll support, but New Hampshire’s Republican governor, Chris Sununu, who hasn’t backed anyone but has campaigned with all the main candidates, says nine weeks is plenty of time.
“Sometime after Thanksgiving we’ll have those hard conversations,” Sununu remarked. “There’s nothing worse than having to talk to your eccentric cousins and weird uncles at Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, that’s just how we do things around here.
There are nine weeks left.
Impressing people requires a certain amount of flexibility. Haley complemented 9-year-old Hannah Kesselring, who was wearing a Haley campaign cap, during the town hall’s question and answer period.
She said, “Thank you, one of your guys gave it to me for free,” which prompted widespread hilarity.
Haley responded with, “I want you to tell me which guy that was, because we don’t do things for free,” which drew more laughter.
After that, Kesselring inquired as to Haley’s top priority if she were elected. Later, accompanied by her parents Steve and Kim, Hannah said she believed Haley’s answer was “spot on” and termed Haley “awesome.” Haley had suggested she would hire new agency heads.
Steve, a 40-year-old business owner, said he wanted to hear from Haley because he was impressed by her performance at the United Nations (and because Hannah, who had seen the third GOP debate, had expressed she wanted to meet Haley). But the experience hadn’t helped limit down his options.
“Yes, a lot of what DeSantis has to say resonates with me. A lot of what Haley says makes sense to me. Also, I approve of what Trump accomplished,” he added. At the end of the day, it’s a toss-up as to which direction to choose.
While some people did go away without making a final decision, others did not. Stephen Pearson, a state representative from New Hampshire, said he was impressed by Haley’s performance in the first GOP debate but would have preferred to hear her speak away from the stage. After the town hall meeting, he decided to back her.
Pearson praised Haley for speaking “hard truths” that people need to hear but may not want to. And as a lieutenant in the Manchester Fire Department, he valued her insight into fentanyl’s role in exacerbating the city’s opioid crisis.
“I see the reality,” he declared. The effects on the country are “just devastating.”
Security chief for the local circuit courts, John Hallinan, 72, identified as an independent who is disappointed in the Republican Party’s stance on abortion following the party’s recent political losses. Haley’s statements in earlier debates about seeking consensus on the topic resonated with him.
He considered her an improvement over the frontrunner. The “noise” about Trump was getting to him, despite the fact that he approved of the president’s policies.
“Right now, to me, his candidature is more of a revenge tour, and that bothers me,” he remarked. A breath of fresh air. Consider her an underdog. You can tell she sets goals and meets them. Since she started working at the United Nations, I’ve been keeping tabs on her. Excellent performance tonight.”
credibility in international relations
The two years Haley spent representing the United States as its ambassador to the United Nations have been central to her campaign. Her campaign speeches are replete with references to her time spent working with US allies like Israel and Ukraine as well as China, Russia, and Iran.
Haley has criticised the stalemate in Congress, saying that support for the border, Ukraine, and Israel are all essential.
The Taiwanese want Westerners to back the Ukrainians because they believe China won’t invade Taiwan if Ukraine prevails. Ukrainians want us to back the Israelis because they fear a Russian victory if Iran triumphs, she explained. This, that, and the other: “It’s all related.”
The controversial failed Republican Senate candidate in New Hampshire in 2022, retired Army brigadier general Don Bolduc, introduced Haley and attempted to shield her from attacks on her foreign policy.
“She knows what it’s like when a service member comes home after being in a combat zone for a year and has to readjust to family life and to life outside of a combat zone,” Bolduc, the head of her New Hampshire campaign, told the gathering in Hooksett. Those who label her as a “war monger” or “one who is beating a war drum” are obviously misinformed.
A primary focus for Haley, he explained in an interview, is “preventing conflict, preventing wars.”
Jeffrey Reaume, a 56-year-old engineer from Portsmouth, said he was still evaluating the field following Haley’s Raymond town hall and termed her foreign policy as a “mixed bag” for him.
I agree that we should back Ukraine. To a certain extent, I can agree with backing Israel, he remarked.
“I think that we’ve done it before, making China out to be the big evil wolf that can’t be dealt with in any other way. It rarely turns out well.”
A 59-year-old artist from Raymond named Natalie Cote said Haley was “absolutely brilliant” after seeing her for the first time at the town hall on Monday night.
She remarked, “I think her experience is really suitable to the problems that we’re having in the world today.”
When asked how she was leaning in the primary, she refused to say.
“I need to do more research,” she admitted.
