{"id":9912,"date":"2024-01-20T14:42:23","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T14:42:23","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Nikki-Haley-Campaign-Messaging-53744651\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=9912","title":{"rendered":"Analysis: Nikki Haley\u2019s campaign message and the struggle of challenging Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley talks with students during a campaign stop at the Polaris Charter School in Manchester on Friday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley listens to students during a campaign stop at the Polaris Charter School, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley talks to students, parents and educators during a campaign stop at the Polaris Charter School, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley talks with students during a campaign stop at the Polaris Charter School, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Manchester, N.H. (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, center, poses for a selfie with guests during a campaign stop at Mary Ann’s Diner on Friday in Amherst.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, center, chats with guests during a campaign stop at Mary Ann’s Diner, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Amherst, N.H. (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley waves to guests during a campaign stop at Mary Ann’s Diner, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Amherst, N.H. (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Republican
Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, third from right, poses for a selfie with guests during a campaign stop at Mary Ann’s Diner, Friday, Jan. 19, 2024, in Amherst, N.H. (AP Photo\/Charles Krupa)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

Donald Trump, Nikki Haley frequently says, was the right person at the right time. Now, it\u2019s time for a change.<\/p>\n

\u201cRightly or wrongly, chaos follows him,\u201d she said of Trump during a CNN town hall at New England College in Henniker Thursday night ahead of Tuesday\u2019s primary. \u201cWe can\u2019t continue down this path and go through four more years of chaos. We won\u2019t survive it. You don\u2019t fix Democrat chaos with Republican chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

She expanded on this idea in a column in the Des Moines Register<\/a> on Jan. 12.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt worked for a time,\u201d she wrote of Trump\u2019s brand of politics. \u201cIn 2016, we needed a president who broke things. But eight years later, everything is still broken, and it won\u2019t be long before it\u2019s beyond repair.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continues, saying her approach is simple: \u201cNo drama. No vendettas. No whining. No fanning the flames of anger and resentment. No turning Americans against each other,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

She has painted herself as an alternative to Trump, yet she does little to specifically explain why she\u2019s better equipped for the job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a weird thing for a candidate to say about a president from their own party,\u201d said Chris Galdieri, a professor at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. \u201cBut second, there\u2019s no story behind it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not like Haley doesn\u2019t have a story to tell \u2014 and she does touch on parts of it throughout her stump speeches. She\u2019s the daughter of Indian immigrants who grew up in Bamberg, South Carolina, a town of roughly 2,500. Their landlord told her family they could rent the home only if they would not host Black guests. In her first foray into politics, she took down a state representative who\u2019d served for three decades. As governor of South Carolina, she ordered the Confederate flag to be taken down from the state capitol following the massacre of nine Black members of the Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston. Her husband, Michael, is currently deployed overseas.<\/p>\n

As the New Hampshire Primary looms on Tuesday, some polls have Haley close to even with Trump, but others still have him with a double-digit lead. FiveThirtyEight\u2019s polling average<\/a> for the state has Trump at 48% and Haley at 34% as of Friday. She\u2019s still an underdog entering Tuesday\u2019s race, and she doesn\u2019t have much more time to shift the dynamics.<\/p>\n

Political observers say the former ambassador to the United Nations could better tackle Trump by doing a better job introducing herself to voters here and explaining more clearly their policy differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not even touch football,\u201d Galdieri said of her approach to Trump.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost folks, by the time they get to be in a position to credibly run for president, they stand for something,\u201d he continued. \u201cThey\u2019ve got some ideas about policy, about what they want to do with power if they get it. \u2026 I don\u2019t really see that with Haley. It\u2019s really rooted in her as a person but in the absence of telling a really compelling story about herself.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s continued grip on the Republican Party has almost certainly played a major role in that strategy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinning the nomination is really challenging, and when you\u2019re facing off against a central figure, a towering figure like Trump, what she\u2019s trying to do is tiptoe and try to be as inoffensive as possible and as acceptable as possible to every single faction of the Republican Party,\u201d said Dante Scala, professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. \u201cI think when that\u2019s your plan, you do best to stay out of specifics.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The flag needed to go\u2019<\/h2>\n

Haley missed an opportunity to tell a story of leadership at a town hall in Berlin on Dec. 27 when she was asked a question about the cause of the Civil War.<\/p>\n

After a long response that touched on her belief in government protecting the freedoms of its people, the attendee stated flatly: \u201cIn the year 2023, it\u2019s astonishing to me that you answered that question without mentioning the word slavery.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do you want me to say about slavery?\u201d she replied.<\/p>\n

She clarified her position the next day.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, the Civil War was about slavery,\u201d she told a different audience in North Conway.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe always want to remember the lesson of what it means to be a free individual and that everyone deserves to be a free individual,\u201d she continued. \u201cSo we stand by that. I say that as a Southerner. I say that as a Southern governor who removed the Confederate flag off the statehouse grounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she missed a prime opportunity to dive further, not only to provide a simple answer but to connect it to that story of when she was governor of the state where the Civil War began and ordered the Confederate flag to come down in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaley was not, at first, keen on tackling a controversy that had cost one of her predecessors his job,\u201d journalist Tim Alberta wrote<\/a> of the Confederate flag debate in an in-depth profile about Haley for Politico Magazine in 2021. \u201cBut when photos surfaced of the assassin posing with a Confederate flag and boasting of his efforts to start a race war, Haley decided \u2014 without input from a single adviser, colleague or friend \u2014 the flag needed to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

When given the opportunity to tell that story about leadership and navigating the tension between the country\u2019s scarred history and its present challenges, Haley missed the chance.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnlike a number of other Republican politicians, she really had to deal with that question of race directly in a way that perhaps other Republicans from other states had not,\u201d Scala said. \u201cAnd yet, what I\u2019m struck by with Haley is just this inherent sense of caution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Galdieri: \u201cHaley almost seems to be taking it for granted that people know who she is, know what her story is, and that\u2019s the basis for her running. It\u2019s kind of odd, and I don\u2019t remember another candidate getting quite so far without really defining their story for voters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, Haley\u2019s polling average has increased roughly eight points since December.<\/p>\n

\u2018Don\u2019t know how itwould translate\u2019<\/h2>\n

Missed opportunity or not, presenting herself as a more even-handed candidate than Trump has drawn support, especially from those in the middle.<\/p>\n

Appealing to independent voters in particular is what spurred Frank Laukien and Jonathan Bush to co-found the \u201cIndependents Moving the Needle\u201d Super PAC, which is unaffiliated with Haley\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n

Laukien, a billionaire businessman and scientist, and Bush, a tech entrepreneur who\u2019s worked in healthcare and is a cousin of George W. Bush, were intrigued by the solutions she\u2019s presented on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very, very impressive in how issue after issue, she really had a clear understanding, a rational approach to it and an attitude of wanting to solve the many issues that we do have as a country,\u201d Laukien said. \u201cWe became really very, very enthusiastic about Nikki, and we actually think that she could be the not only next generation leader, but perhaps a transformational leader who could work across the aisle, be a conservative, but not be an ideological conservative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their organization is targeting the roughly 200,000 or so independent voters who they think could be swayed to support Haley and prevent a rematch of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n

Laukien also added that he doesn\u2019t take issue with Haley spending less time on the campaign trail talking about her personal background.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m kind of glad she\u2019s not playing it up too, too much because I\u2019m not a big fan of identity politics,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the fact that she would be the first woman president and first president who would be \u2026 from Asian descent, I think it\u2019s wonderful. It shows that we\u2019re a big melting pot, and immigrants have as much of a chance in this country as people whose family has been here for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whatever it is that draws voters to Haley, Independents Moving the Needle hopes there are enough to deny Trump a win in New Hampshire on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Scala, though, noted the limit of the Haley campaign\u2019s strategy in pinning its hopes on a strong turnout among independents. Even in John McCain\u2019s 2000 New Hampshire primary win, often touted as the gold standard performance with independents, he still won 44% of Republican voters over Bush\u2019s 36%, in addition to the 61% he received from independents.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe percentage of independents who show up and vote is really going to have to be extraordinary,\u201d Scala said. \u201cAnd it would be a great New Hampshire story if it happened, but I just don\u2019t know how that would translate \u2014 even if she pulled it off \u2014 to other primaries in other states where you don\u2019t have the mix that you do here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Haley\u2019s path to the nomination, while never a particularly wide one, grows infinitesimally small if she doesn\u2019t perform well on Tuesday. Her home state of South Carolina holds the next notable primary on Feb. 24, but emerging from New Hampshire without a boost from voters only enhances her challenge moving forward in a state where Trump leads her by roughly 30 points.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are all sorts of folks who\u2019ve come through over the years who\u2019ve had great biographies, great resumes, perfect experience, but for whatever reason just didn\u2019t click,\u201d Galdieri said. \u201cI think Haley\u2019s gotten really far, but it might just be the case that she\u2019s hit her ceiling already.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump, Nikki Haley frequently says, was the right person at the right time. Now, it\u2019s time for a change.\u201cRightly or wrongly, chaos follows him,\u201d she said of Trump during a CNN town hall at New England College in Henniker Thursday night ahead of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":9913,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=188]Eric Rynston-Lobel[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[516,19],"tags":[24,505,25],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533],"class_list":["post-9912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homebox2-cm","category-politics","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","tag-primary-2024","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/42734156-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9914,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9912\/revisions\/9914"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9912"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=9912"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=9912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}