‘Hit me with your best shot’

OSCEOLA — While former president Donald Trump is leading national and statewide polls in the Republican caucus, hopeful Nikki Haley is used to being the underdog.

In her bid for a position in the South Carolina legislator, she went against a 30-year incumbent. When she won, she became the first Indian-American to hold office in South Carolina. When she ran for governor of her home state, her opponents were an attorney general, a well-known congressman and the lieutenant governor.

“I was Nikki who?” she said Tuesday in Osceola at Revelton Brewery during a campaign stop. "

While in the state legislature, South Carolina typically voted on issues with a voice vote and without keeping track of who voted which way. “After being there three or four years, they sent through a bill to actually give legislators a pay raise,” she said. “Yet to this day, you can’t find anyone who says they voted to give themselves a pay raise.”

Haley filed a bill saying anything important enough to be debated on the floor in the House or the Senate is important enough for the people to know how their legislators voted. “The speaker of the house said, ‘Take it away; we won’t need it. We will decide what the public needs to see and what they don’t,’” Haley said. “When I refused to put the bill away, when I went around the state telling them about how they didn’t realize their legislators were not voting on the record, they stripped me of everything. I lost my committee assignments, I lost my seniority. I could take the floor, no one would hear me speak. I could sponsor a bill, no one would co-sponsor.”

This was what prompted Haley’s run for governor. “I’m proud to say one of the first bills we signed into law, is now in South Carolina, anything important enough to be debated on the floor in the House or the Senate would require a legislative vote on the record. We took it a step further and we did it on every section of the budget as well,” She said. “I love music, so on the day of the bill signing, we blasted through the statehouse Pat Benatar’s ‘Hit Me With Your Best Shot.’”

Agriculture

Compared to her rural hometown, Haley called Osceola a “metropolis.”

“I grew up in a small rural town in South Carolina – 2,500 people, two stop lights. You couldn’t think about doing something wrong without somebody already telling your momma,” she joked. “The reason we are trying to hit these small areas too is because we know you matter just as much as the bigger areas.”

While leading South Carolina, Haley said she was partners with her farmers.

“At the end of the day, food security is national security,” she said. “Farmers are the ultimate survivors. They can’t control the weather, they can’t control pricing and they have to deal with all of these issues with government. That’s what you don’t need. If you’re really going to go and help the farmers, you have to be a support system to them.”

A proponent of biofuels, the Renewable Fuel Standard and less government regulation, Haley said she wants to help farmers succeed.

“The other side of it is, a lot of farmers in Iowa do trade with China,” she said. “Transfer that trade and grow it to India, to South Korea, to the Philippines, to Australia. When we do that, China won’t hold any of our farmer’s hostage. We’ll actually be in front of the situation and get them to a better place.”

Foreign Relations

After six years as governor, Haley had the opportunity to serve as the United States ambassador to the United Nations. Once again, she made history as the first Indian-American holding a cabinet-level position.

As the president of the UN Security Council, foreign relations was her major role. She spoke to world leaders denouncing terrorism and standing up for U.S. allies like Israel.

Haley said standing with Israel and Ukraine in their ongoing conflicts would represent only 5% of the defense budget.

“Congress is saying do we support Ukraine or do we support Israel? Do we support Israel or do we secure the border,” she said. “Don’t let them lie to you like that. That’s a false premise and they know it.”

During her time in the UN, Haley said the U.S. had no better ally than Ukraine. “They voted with us on everything, they supported every initiative we took whether we asked them to or not,” she said.

Though she doesn’t support troops on the ground in Ukraine or sending cash, she is in favor of helping arm them for the conflict.

For those wondering why we should care about Ukraine, Haley urges them to look toward Russia’s future plans. “Russia said once they take Ukraine, Poland and the Baltics are next. Those are NATO countries, and that puts America at war,” she said. “This is about preventing war.”

Haley also talked about defending Israel. “Israel is a bright spot in a tough neighborhood,” she said. “Israel has always been the tip of the spear when it comes to defeating terrorism.”

Her number one priority is in securing the border. “This is always about national security and preventing war.” She spoke to the devastating impact fentanyl coming over the border has had, 75,000 Americans dying last year from the drug.

ON THE ISSUE -

Budget: When Congress opened up spending for earmarks and pet projects after a decade, Republicans pushed through more than $7 billion worth and Democrats added another $2 billion. Haley said these would be the first to go in her presidency, favoring spending on more urgent matters. With a degree in accounting, the crowd applauded when she asked if it would be nice to have an accountant in the White House.

Abortion: Though she is “unapologetically” pro-life, Haley is in favor of each state letting its people decide whether or not abortion should be legal. She encourages Americans to find consensus, saying there are some things we can all agree on like not allowing late-term abortions and not jailing women who have abortions. Haley said her struggle to have children and her husband being adopted has shaped the way she views the issue.

Veterans: As the wife of a combat veteran, Haley is dissatisfied with the way veterans have been treated in America, saying we need to keep supporting them when they return home. She said if members of Congress were required to use Veterans Affairs for their health insurance, it would quickly become the best in the country.

Education: Haley spoke numerous times on getting kids back into reading, citing only 31% of eighth-graders are proficient in reading. In terms of student loans, Haley wants students to have to sit down and listen to an explanation of their student loans and the terms coming with them.

Jan. 6: Haley said she was most disappointed in Trump not telling his followers to stand down once the chaos begin. She said those who broke the law should be given an appropriate punishment and those who didn’t should be released.

Term Limits: Referring to the Senate as “the most privileged nursing home in the country,” Haley is in favor of term limits and mandatory mental capacity tests for politicians over a certain age. “Seventy-five percent of people say they don’t want a rematch between Biden and Trump,” she said. “You have to know when to move on. We’ve got two 80-year-olds running for president. It’s not disrespect, it’s the fact that we’ve got to face new issues with new solutions, and we can’t keep living in yesterday. What we’re seeing is people do want a new generational leader.”