Olson said Haley understands that governing as state executive sometimes requires compromise. And he didn't fault her for supporting Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election, even though Olson himself supported Newt Gingrich. Olson said she was concerned about her decision in 2015 to call for the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the Capitol grounds, even though many of the activists who initially supported her were furious. No, she said.
But when Ms. Haley endorsed Marco Rubio in 2016 and Ms. Olson deemed her disrespectful of the populist movement fueling Mr. Trump's rise, Ms. Olson no longer saw her in the same light. He said it was gone.
“She's been over-institutionalized, so to speak,” he says.
Had she not run, Haley might have been in good standing within South Carolina's Republican Party as a former governor. Despite Haley's self-imposed exclusion from the state's grassroots activist circles, she remained a popular politician here before running for president.
Haley's favorability rating among Republicans in the state has fallen from Trump's mid-80s in the early stages of the 2022 election cycle, according to an internal poll of statewide candidates shared by Politico. It was slightly lower than the second half, and within the margin of error. General population polls at the time showed similar results throughout 2023, after Haley entered the primary against Trump.
But after stepping up her direct attacks on Trump, Haley's favorability rating with the South Carolina Republican fell from 71% in November to 56% in February, according to a Winthrop University poll this month. Ms. Haley's favorability ratings among Republican voters more than doubled, while her popularity among Republican voters more than doubled.
Rob Godfrey, Haley's former chief of staff who has remained neutral in the primary, said Haley has not lost South Carolina's conservative base, who still “know her very well.” “I love it, and I look back fondly on my time as governor.”
“But they also feel safe and actually like Donald Trump as the national party leader,” Godfrey said.
“They're almost perfect foils,” Godfrey said, adding that Trump is “like a grievance mastermind who weaponizes anger and emotion against his political opponents more effectively than anyone in history.” “It's a great existence,” he said.
And today's Republican Party in South Carolina and elsewhere has “an angrier party base than anyone saw during the rise of the Tea Party,” Godfrey said.
Former South Carolina Republican Party Chairman Cayton Dawson, who is working with Haley on her presidential campaign in South Carolina, acknowledged that “Trump has control over a significant segment of voters in South Carolina.'' , Haley said, could increase his support base. Percentage of voters participating in the state's Republican primary.
South Carolina does not register voters by party, so only 135,000 people voted in the Democratic primary earlier this month, leaving 3 million eligible voters to enter this week's Republican contest. It became more than a person. Haley herself is encouraging voters across the political spectrum to participate in the Republican primary, but her allies explained in the TV ads and in the video that you don't have to be a Republican to vote on Saturday. The company funds the mailings.
Dawson said Haley's campaign is focused on finding people who tend to vote Republican in general elections but don't typically participate in primaries. However, despite pro-Trump demonstrators showing up at her events and the Trump campaign's fierce attacks on Haley, Dawson said that even some of the state's conservative supporters, who support Trump, said, “Nikki Haley. I don't hate it,” he said.
“They'll say, 'I voted for her three times and it's not her turn,'” Dawson said.
