Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley surprised conservatives this weekend after the former South Carolina governor made a comment about changing “personalities” while talking about the upcoming Iowa caucuses and the Iowa primaries. New Hampshire.
“The structure is really amazing,” Haley told an interviewer on a local Iowa PBS station last week about the GOP primary process. “Iowa starts it. You change your personality, you go to New Hampshire.”
The presidential candidate was discussing whether she would support changing the order in which states vote in Republican primaries like Democrats did in their presidential primary process. She often comments that each state has its own personality.
At a recent event in Iowa, Haley called Iowans “patriotic,” “hardworking” and “very careful,” while saying that New Hampshire voters wear their “feelings on their sleeve” and that Iowans South Carolina can “kick you with a smile.”
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Nikki Haley faces increased scrutiny as she shows momentum ahead of voting in Iowa and New Hampshire. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images)
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has seen Haley’s poll numbers tighten as her numbers rise, criticized the 51-year-old for the comment while answering questions after an event in Des Moines, Iowa. , Saturday.
DeSantis said it’s “just not going well” for Haley as she faces increased media scrutiny. “I think she’s not showing the ability to withstand that and answer the kinds of questions that you need. I mean, obviously you saw that she’s dealing with history, having problems there, belittling Iowa with the things she said there… .and now this saying that you change your personality once you leave Iowa and go to New Hampshire.”
Texas Rep. Chip Roy, who supports DeSantis, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday: “So… @NikkiHaley (allies) throws another $1.8 million at @RonDeSantis… so he can ‘switch personality’ and go to NH to ‘correct’ Iowans… and audition to be Trump’s VP (0 dollars against Trump)… to forever advance wars, open borders and corporations. interests. I understand. #DeSantis2024.”
Haley’s campaign responded to the attacks, with spokesperson AnneMarie Graham-Barnes telling Fox News Digital in a statement: “Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump are growing more desperate with each passing hour, Nikki’s push is real and His vision resonates, so “We’re grasping at straws. “Voters see through this.”
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Iowa polls show that former President Trump, who has also increased his attacks on Haley, including in television ads, has a double-digit lead over the other candidates (about 50%, according to a Real Clear Politics average), but Haley has closed the gap on DeSantis and the two are vying for second place at 15.7% and 18.4% respectively, with Vivek Ramaswamy a distant fourth at 6%.
Republican presidential candidate and former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign town hall in Rye, NH, on Tuesday. (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
“President Trump has long said he would focus his sights on whoever is number two in the race,” Jason Miller, a Trump adviser, recently told Politico. “Rob DeSanctimonious is approaching single digits everywhere and his campaign is on life support, which means it’s Nikki Haley’s turn.”
Haley has struggled with other gaffes recently, notably her response at a New Hampshire town hall last month that failed to mention slavery as the cause of the Civil War. Hours later she retracted the comments and said “of course” the war was about slavery, but her opponents continue to harass her about it.
He also faced criticism for recently telling New Hampshire voters, “You know Iowa starts. You know you fix it… you know my sweet state of South Carolina brings it home,” which he later described as a joke.
Haley noted the increased attacks she has received from Trump and his other opponents during a town hall in Iowa on Saturday, joking, “All these guys are paying too much attention to me.”
She also mocked Trump for a recent attack ad against her, which claimed that she and President Biden opposed Trump’s border security measures, such as a wall.
“Isn’t it very kind of you to spend so much time and money against me?” he joked to Fox News. On Saturday he told Iowa voters that he had actually said the wall was a start, but that more needed to be done to secure the border.
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“They’re taking little pieces and putting them together to make it look how they want you to see it,” Haley said of the other candidates’ attacks. “But you know what it means that if they lie, it’s because they know they’re losing. It’s that simple. And if they’re going to lie about me, I’ll tell you the truth about them.”
