Nikki Haley packs Exeter Town Hall: Her message and expert's view of her chances in 2024

EXETER — Vying to knock off her ex-boss Donald Trump in the wide-open Republican presidential primary, former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley made her pitch to New Hampshire voters in front of a packed house Thursday night.

Not a single seat was empty inside the iconic old Town Hall as Haley took the stage, a large American flag hung high behind sign-bearing supporters seated onstage.

Haley told the crowd that the Republican Party has lost seven of the last eight popular votes. The way to combat that, she said, is to turn away from the status quo and stop focusing on old issues.

Haley, 51, said elected officials over the age of 75 should be required to undergo mental competency tests. President Biden is 80, while Trump is 76.

The path forward, Haley said, is to turn to a new generation of leaders.

“And the best way to do that is to put a badass woman in the White House,” she said to thunderous applause, making an appeal for support in the 2024 New Hampshire primary.

"Everything I’ve ever done, I’ve pushed against the status quo," Haley said.

Remarking that Washington D.C. “needs to go on a diet,” Haley said the United States is buried in debt, inflation has soared because of stimulus packages, small businesses can’t pay their rent, and, “for the first time, parents don't think their kids are going to live a better life" (than the previous generation).

Haley called for an end to calls to defund the police, to invest in law enforcement, to secure the American border and to strengthen the military to stand up to global powers like China and Russia.

With her sights set on the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, Haley, the former United States ambassador to the United Nations under Trump, began a campaign swing through the Granite State, which will hold the first in the nation Republican primary, just two days after announcing her presidential candidacy.

Growing up in an Indian family, the daughter of a professor and a school teacher, in a two-stoplight South Carolina town, Haley said she graduated from Clemson University with a degree in accounting. Opting to go into politics and serve her community, she served three terms in the South Carolina House before winning two terms as governor.

Jobs had gone overseas and unemployment rates were in the double digits when she became governor, she told the crowd.

“And I knew that if you give a person a job, you take care of a family, and we had a lot of families to take care of in South Carolina,” she said. “So we got to work.”

Haley touted her work in requiring voter identification in South Carolina, mandating state businesses only hire legal immigrants and overseeing unemployment levels that hit a 15-year low during her tenure.

“It goes to show that when government works for you, then everybody benefits,” she said.

The Valentine’s Day presidential race declaration by Haley made her only the fifth “prominent” female candidate and first Asian-American woman to seek the GOP nomination, according to the Center for American Women and Politics, in addition to being the first former or current female governor to ever run in a presidential primary.

Though facing early attacks from Trump and the New Hampshire Democratic Party, Haley has received the backing of retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, of Stratham, the Trump-endorsed Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate who failed in his bid to unseat incumbent Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan in November.

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On the Second Amendment, Haley said American citizens should have the right to defend themselves. Regarding safety in schools, Haley said every school should have a mental health consultant, one entryway and one security officer stationed on the premises.

Don't take away guns from good people because there are people that have committed bad acts with guns, she said. The overarching issue is that more widespread and longer-lasting mental health services are needed to assist American citizens, she added.

“But that doesn't mean we don't have a problem,” Haley said of gun violence.

Former U.S. Senate candidate Don Bolduc endorses Haley

Bolduc introduced Haley to the crowd and stated that his endorsement was shared by his wife, Sharon, adding that “without strong women in our lives, we just can’t be successful.”

Pivoting to Haley’s candidacy, Bolduc stated: “Here I am with this opportunity. This is the American dream. And we have no better representation of the American dream than Nikki Haley.”

Bolduc commended Haley for conducting a town hall-style event to help kick off her campaign, quipping that Thursday's event was "coffee breath close" and packed with supporters.

"I'll tell you (that) she's an intelligent, strong woman who's in the right place at the right time to lead this great nation, to save this great nation, to bring this great nation back to the respect and honor that it deserves."

What the experts and polls say about Nikki Haley's chances in 2024

In late January, the University of New Hampshire Survey Center released a Granite State Poll asking voters who they’d cast their ballots for in the Republican primary.

Among 13 conservative options, all but two of them prospective candidates, Haley finished in third, with 8% of respondents stating that she would be their first choice candidate. Haley finished behind Trump, who 30% of respondents cited as their first choice candidate, and far behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who finished at the top with 42%.

“It should be noted that primary campaigns are very volatile and leading a year before the primary does not guarantee a win in New Hampshire,” the poll stated.

Other names on the poll included former Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, previous Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, former Vice President Mike Pence, Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, as well as New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, who recently formed a fundraising committee tasked with exploring a presidential run.

Andrew Smith, the UNH Survey Center director and professor, said in New Hampshire and throughout the country, Haley needs to raise her visibility among Republican voters. Per the poll, 11% of likely GOP primary voters reported not knowing who she is, and an additional 29% noted they don’t know enough about her to have an opinion.

Haley’s strengths, Smith continued, are that she is currently the sole woman in the race, she was a popular former governor in an early primary state, and that she served in the Trump administration but is not widely viewed as being a “MAGA Republican.”

“The difficulty for Haley, as well as any other GOP candidates, is that Trump still has significant support in New Hampshire. He won in 2016 with only 35% of the vote, but the rest of the vote was spread out over eight other candidates who were still in the hunt,” Smith said. “That looks like it might happen again this cycle. She has to distance herself from Trump to get the anti-Trump voters. Emphasizing her skills as governor as well as her foreign policy background would certainly emphasize her background which is different from many of the other candidates.”

In her closing remarks, Haley recalled once standing on a bridge in South America, where she was encountered by Venezuelans "fleeing socialism" and journeying to Columbia. Haley told the audience that she was abruptly swarmed by a crowd of adults holding their children, causing her to wonder what interest they had in her.

"And then it hit me. They didn't care who I was. They cared where I was from and immediately, they saw America, and in America they saw hope," she said. "That's what we're going to get back to."

When might Sununu and the rest of field join Republican primary race?

Smith projects that the next batch of candidates to declare their candidacy will come before the Fourth of July. He cited DeSantis, Pence, Hogan and former United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo as the next group likely to declare, adding that former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson and former Michigan congressman Mike Rogers could join the race.

As for Sununu, now in his fourth term at the helm of New Hampshire, Smith believes he will enter the fray and seek the Republican nomination.

When could that occur? Smith projects Sununu will make a major announcement sometime in the late summer or early fall.

“He is in a good position because he is well known in New Hampshire, has been reelected three times, and is a popular governor,” Smith wrote in an email. “He has already lined up (gently) against Trump. He also has a good sense of humor, which he can (and has) used against Trump.”

In the Granite State Poll from last month, Sununu finished in fourth among potential and declared Republican presidential candidates, with 4% of respondents stating he would be their first choice for the 2024 nomination.

NH Democrats attack Haley

In a statement Tuesday, New Hampshire Democratic Party chairperson Ray Buckley labeled the Republican primary as “already a mess,” adding that Haley is “as extreme as they come," stating that she signed an abortion ban as South Carolina’s governor.

“After spending years working for Donald Trump, singing his praises, and admitting she has no policy differences with him, Nikki Haley is trying to repackage her MAGA extremism in hopes New Hampshire voters forget who she is,” Buckley said.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Nikki Haley packs Exeter Town Hall in 2024 NH primary campaign stop