June 19
It was a beautiful day in South Carolina as Nikki Haley attended a town hall event in Moncks Corner. She talked about her husband’s deployment, visiting the border and foreign aid to countries that “‘”hate America”’” among other things.
An op-ed by veteran and former Senate candidate Don Bolduc in the New Hampshire Union Leader supported Haley as the nominee.
June 20
Haley criticised China’s Xi Jinping and the border crisis.
June 21
Haley continued her criticism of former President Barack Obama, the start of which you’ll see in last week’s column. She wrote an op-ed in the Daily Mail in which she decried his talk of racism in the United States. Haley believes talk like this is divisive and that it will lead to the constant belief in the inferiority of ethnic minorities. She added that these are the people most affected by crime, welfare, drugs, and lack of good education in the city.
Much is made of Haley’s name, which critics use to decry her. They also claim she changed her name to sound more “American.” Nikki’s birth name is Nimarata Nikki Randhawa. She has gone by her middle name – which is Punjabi – since she was young and Haley is her married name. Haley has gone by Nikki since before she entered politics. Several Presidents have gone by their middle names – Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Woodrow Wilson and Calvin Coolidge. Others have changed their name, as is the case with Bill Clinton and Gerald Ford. Politicians that go by their middle name include Mitt Romney, Boris Johnson and Rick Perry.
June 22
Haley issued a statement welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India to DC.
She criticised members of ‘The Squad’ for boycotting Modi’s speech. The Squad is a group of progressive Congresswomen who were elected in 2018. Three of their members – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib – announced that they would not be going. They stated their belief that Modi is violating human rights, especially in regards to the Muslim population. The fourth member, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, was not included. Haley stated that they’re happy to ignore democratically elected leaders but cozy up with Palestinian terrorists and socialist dictators.
June 23
Haley introduced the leadership team for her New Hampshire campaign.
An op-ed in The Hill, written by Liz Peek, discussed how Haley is right about President Biden being weak on China.
June 24
Today is the one year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. During this momentous case, a majority of the Justices stated that the right to abortion does not appear in the Constitution. This overturned nearly fifty years of Roe v Wade and handed the decision back to the states. Almost immediately, abortion laws started massively changing across the nation. More conservative states pushed to limit abortion, with some passing ‘heartbeat bills’ that banned abortion after six weeks except in extraordinary circumstances.
One year on and the division in the country is still apparent. The views tend to be partisan, with Republicans in favour and Democrats against. Haley believes in a 15-week limit with exceptions for the health and life of the mother as well as cases of incest and rape. She stated that the issue is personal to her, as she initially struggled to have children, whilst her husband was adopted as a child.
Haley attended the Road to Majority Conference this weekend. She continued to talk about major issues such as China and trans people in sport.
A tweet by Haley caused controversy. Many proclaimed it was wrong, arguing that their childhoods were in eras filled with racism, misogyny and homophobia. Some accused Haley of erasing her own past, as she’d previously discussed the hardships of being an Indian-American in 70s/80s South Carolina.
June 25
A quiet day for Haley.
Haley was talking mainly about race this week, as a continuation from last week’s rebuttal to Barack Obama. Race is not something minority candidates shy away from – we’ve heard it from Obama, Kamala Harris, Marco Rubio and others. Time will tell of this becomes a major talking point.