LITTLETON, NH — When Nikki Haley looks at America, she sees a nation filled with self-loathing, whose debt is skyrocketing, and a belligerent China threatening its preeminence.
In her eyes, america has sunk right into a rut that requires an iron will to break out of.
“I believe America needs a lady of steel like no other,” Haley, 51, told The Post of a hotel in town of 6,000 across the Connecticut River from Vermont.
“They need someone to tell them the reality,” she added. “They need someone to make the tough decisions.”
For Haley’s supporters, this bleak assessment of America in 2023 is not any coincidence, however it is meant to evoke a really different time and place: Britain, circa 1979.
“It’s with great pleasure that I introduce to you what I consider the Iron Lady of America, Ambassador Nikki Haley,” Kim Rice, the previous Speaker Pro Tempore of the Recent Hampshire House of Representatives, announced Friday as a storm on the VFW stand in nearby Lancaster brewed outside.
Lonely contestant
![Nikki Haley speaks in New Hampshire.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013692822-1.jpg?w=1024)
Haley is the underdog within the GOP 2024 twelve-man race, dominated by former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis.
But because the only woman within the Republican field, probably the most diverse within the party’s 169-year history, comparisons to the Conservative icon and the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher are intuitive to a few of her supporters.
“I see her as someone I need my daughters and granddaughter to admire and aspire to. She’s a robust leader,” Rice told The Post. “Nobody should underestimate her.”
![former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013737024.jpg?w=1024)
Like many Republicans, Haley bristled in identity politics and alleged victim culture in America
At the identical time, she is quick to remind voters of her upbringing as “the proud daughter of Indian immigrants” and the way she struggled with it growing up in South Carolina just a number of years after the Civil Rights Movement flourished.
“We’d like to end this national self-hatred that has taken over our country,” she often told attendees during her recent stops in Granite State, noting that her family status made her the country’s first female minority governor in 2010. “America isn’t racist, we’re blessed.”
![Nikki Haley's book references one of Thatcher's most famous quotes.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013737402.jpg?w=663)
Haley’s supporters – and even some undecided voters – make it clear that they need the primary female president to be a conservative woman.
“She’s still coping with a person’s world. She needs support from more men,” said Carolyn Grant, 76, an undecided voter, after meeting Haley at a bakery in Lincoln, in the center of the White Mountains.
Haley herself nurtured Thatcher’s image, no less than superficially. Before officially launching her campaign in February, Haley paid tribute to the previous prime minister Tease on Twitter 2024 and wrote fondly of the British statesman (who died in 2013) in her book, If You Want to Do Something: Leadership Lessons from Brave Women. (Even the title alludes to one in all Thatcher’s most memorable quotes: “When you want someone to give a speech, ask a person; for those who want something done, ask a lady.”)
Parallels in foreign policy
![former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013737065.jpg?w=1024)
Just like the Iron Lady’s consistent anti-Soviet stance, Haley heavily manipulated harsh rhetoric about foreign threats throughout the election campaign, a throwback to her days as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations representing America.
“China has long been preparing for war with america,” she warned during a few of her speeches in northern Recent Hampshire. “It isn’t a drama. That is the best threat we have had since Pearl Harbor.”
“I believe he has quite a lot of experience in foreign policy. I believe he has the suitable stance on China,” said Dhruv Nandamudi, 33, of Pittsburgh, NH, who brought his wife, child and dog to Haley City Hall in Lancaster.
“No candidate is ideal, but especially in her foreign policy, I believe she was nearly as good because it gets,” he concluded.
Despite his emphasis on Beijing, Haley clearly refrains from describing the US-China rivalry as a recent Cold War.
“People put an excessive amount of emphasis on terminology. I see it more as infiltration,” she told The Post, highlighting Chinese President Xi Jinping’s ambition to “own the information.”
“You can not negotiate with dictators; you can’t negotiate with bandits who want to take over the West and our country,” she said. “As an alternative, what you may do is be strong and show them we’re ready to defend ourselves.”
But foreign policy isn’t all the pieces in politics.
Nandamudi, who said he was still researching candidates, was critical of Haley for not being more committed to pro-life policies or Justice Department reform – a favourite topic of post-Trump Republican voters.
Also, not all of Haley’s audience likes a tricky approach in the worldwide arena. Some were bored with getting entangled in foreign conflicts and complained in regards to the so-called “neo-conservatives” who were thought to be behind the push to invade Iraq a generation ago.
A large variety of Republicans in Congress disagree with the rising price of weapons stockpiling in Ukraine in its efforts to stop Russian aggressors. GOP 2024 leader Trump talks about war in Europe only to promise to end it inside 24 hours of taking office. Meanwhile, DeSantis caused a storm in March by referring to the conflict as a “territorial dispute.”
Haley, then again, has steadfastly sided with the federal government in Kiev.
“Victory in Ukraine matters a lot because it should be used as a deterrent to China [and] invasion of Taiwan. They’re watching all the pieces immediately,” she said.
![Nikki Haley](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013692862.jpg?w=1024)
Fiscal conservatism
As well as to repeating Thatcher’s call for strength abroad, Haley also mirrors her calls for fiscal restraint at home, a continuing call from Conservatives.
“We’re $32 trillion in debt,” Haley lamented in a half-crowded gym within the ski town of North Conway.
“It might be easy for me to say Biden did this to us,” she added. “Our Republicans did this to us.”
Haley quickly recites what she considers past GOP fiscal sins, akin to green-lighting COVID-19 relief measures “with none responsibility” and touting her pre-political life as an accountant.
![Nikki Haley](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013492560.jpg?w=1024)
Haley didn’t shrink back from calls for powers reform in her speech to restore financial order to the country, a bone of contention for some Republicans like Trump, who the party’s congressional wing warned not cut “a penny” from Social Security or Medicare.
“The most important thing is that he won’t lie to you,” said Marie Gray, 82, a volunteer on the Lincoln Gathering wearing a Haley T-shirt. “You might not like what she says, but she’s going to let you know the reality.”
Like many who support Haley (or are no less than intrigued by her), Gray is deeply reticent about Trump’s third consecutive nomination, especially within the aftermath of the January 6, 2021, Capitol storming.
![Nikki Haley in New Hampshire.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013692882.jpg?w=1024)
The sport plan for victory
RealClearPolitics average of the 2024 Republican race polls shows Haley in fourth place with 3.6%, behind Trump (53%), DeSantis (20.9%) and former Vice President Mike Pence (6.1%) and just ahead of state rival Senator Tim Scott (3 .3%).
Almost exactly six months into the Iowa nightclubs, Haley is running out of time to catch up. But each the candidate and her campaign insist she is precisely where she wants to be.
“It is a marathon. It isn’t a sprint,” Haley said Friday at Lancaster Town Hall. “In July 2015, Ted Cruz went to Iowa with 4%. In November he had 10 percent. In January, he won the Iowa caucuses with 28% of the vote.”
![Buttons supporting Nikki Haley in New Hampshire](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/07/NYPICHPDPICT000013692875.jpg?w=1024)
To win the party’s support, Haley is betting heavily on trade policy, persistently surpassing the highest two voting states. Last week’s events took her Recent Hampshire appearances tally to 39 and made her the second Republican candidate after Vivek Ramaswamy to hit the North Country Granite State – often ignored by candidates in favor of the main cities of Manchester, Nashua and Concord along the interstate 93 north of Boston.
During these grassroots events, Haley tries to charm voters together with her Southern warmth and reserved demeanor.
In sharp contrast to Trump’s rhetorical carpet bombings and DeSantis’s no-prisoner culture war stance, Haley tends to go for less high-profile public fights.
“I believe the Republicans are so used to fighting that they forget that we win by numbers. We do not win by the loudest vote, we win by having more individuals with us than against us,” she told The Post.
Haley’s attention to less populated areas was noticed by Jeb Bradley, the president of the Recent Hampshire State Senate, and a frequent presence at many campaign events, although he had yet to endorse.
“In fact there may be a good distance to go here and in national polls, but [she’s] I believe Recent Hampshire voters will take a look at it quite closely,” he told The Post, praising its “positive message.”
There may be also quite a lot of money to collect. Haley has reached the funding threshold to qualify for Milwaukee’s first Republican debate next month, but her campaign has yet to announce her selection for the second quarter of this 12 months – her first full three-month campaign run. Trump and DeSantis established early indicators, with the previous president saying his joint fundraising committee raised $35 million between April 1 and June 30, while DeSantis revealed that his campaign alone raised $20 million since his participation within the race late May.
Haley’s campaign was rumored to receive $11 million in the primary quarter of this 12 months, but a more in-depth take a look at the numbers showed that it actually did. she raised just $8.3 million in her entire campaignits leadership of PAC Stand For America and super PAC SFA, Inc.
Currently, Haley’s campaign insists on spending donor money sparingly, refraining from spending money on TV commercials while constructing a large war chest.
“Some campaigns are unwise to spend money early,” spokesman Ken Farnaso told The Post. “We’re withholding ours until it matters, when voters are literally being attentive.”