The case for Nikki Haley
At a dinner recently, I chatted with a conservative retired businessman who spends his time between Michigan and Florida. I asked him who among the Republican candidates had piqued his interest.
He didn’t hesitate: Nikki Haley. “She’s the adult in the room,” he said.
Other people are paying attention to Haley, too. A word that keeps coming up in regard to the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, in President Donald Trump's administration, is “momentum.”
Haley seems to have it.
“Nikki Haley is certainly in a good position,” said Alice Stewart, Republican consultant and veteran presidential communications adviser. “You want to have the momentum and you want to peak at the right time, and right now she's got the momentum a month out from the Iowa caucus.”
In the past week, Haley earned the coveted endorsement from the influential Koch network. Through Americans for Prosperity Action, its political powerhouse, she will get an infusion of money and help from activists on the ground in states throughout the country.
The group defended its decision in a memo, stating that Haley “offers America the opportunity to turn the page on the current political era, to win the Republican primary and defeat Joe Biden next November.”
The next day, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon encouraged a group of wealthy business leaders to throw their support behind Haley in an effort to “get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump.”
All this additional attention means more people will be listening closely to what she has to say at the fourth Republican primary debate on Wednesday.
"The more voters hear from Nikki Haley, the more they like her,” said Ashley Davis, vice chair of Winning for Women Action Fund, a Republican super PAC that helps elect conservative women, in a statement. “Her conservative record and positive vision are clearly resonating, and she's ridden that momentum into second place in critical early states.”
If beating President Biden is actually what Republicans want to do, recent polls offer a strong rationale for why Haley may be the best option to do just that.
Every survey in recent months has the former ambassador leading Biden in hypothetical matchups by a wider margin than Trump – and her other leading GOP contender, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
A November poll from Marquette Law School, for example, showed Haley leading Biden by 10 points – 55% to 45% among registered voters. Trump leads Biden by 4 points; DeSantis bests Biden by 2.
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Haley was a successful governor and UN ambassador. There are some problems with this polling though. Democrats have been somewhat successful in recent years in demonizing whoever the Republicans nominate. They have certainly done that with Trump. Their irrational hatred of Trump knows no bounds even though he was a much more successful president than Biden. Trump, unlike Biden, kept inflation under control and Europe and the Middle East were not on fire with wars. While I think Hanley could be a successful candidate and president you can count on Democrats demonization no matter what.
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