At Mrs Haley’s event on Wednesday, supporters expressed skepticism that she could win the nomination. Lonnie Knight, a small Charleston businessman, said he would likely vote for her, but predicted Mr DeSantis would win the nomination, then choose between Ms Haley and Mr Scott for his running mate. mine.
Haley’s reluctance to attack Mr. Trump with her name may well be keeping a Trump-Haley ticket as an option. In 2016, Mr. Pence, then governor of Indiana, helped cement Mr. Trump’s appeal to conservative Protestants who had once derided him. In 2024, with many voters still loyal to Mr. Trump, Haley could help Mr. Trump address perhaps his biggest weakness, which is suburban Republican women.
But running for vice president will be difficult for Haley, South Carolina Republicans said, because the state’s primaries are so early. She will have to signal that she’s in to win it, Mr. Felkel said, and that could mean she’ll have to attack her former boss eventually.
Haley’s announcement relies heavily on her origins as the child of Indian immigrants, “a brown girl who grew up in black and white America,” she said on Wednesday. But she also stressed that she was taught to emphasize the things Americans have in common, not their differences, a message that reassures white voters who dominate the Republican Party.
“America is not a racist country,” she said to the cheers of a largely white audience.
An adviser to Mr. Scott, who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing preliminary campaign preparations, said that because Haley works for Mr. Trump, it will be harder for her to separate herself from him. The adviser said that while Mr. Scott could rise to the top of the conflict, Ms. Haley would be under more pressure when confronting the former president head-on.
“This is going to be one of the most fascinating things to see I’ve seen in the political arena,” Mr Connelly said.
