New ‘moderate’ line of attack emerges against Nikki Haley amid polling surge

As former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley sees upward momentum in several key 2024 Republican primary measures, her opponents have started accusing her of political correctness and being a centrist in her views.

Specifically, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) hit Haley for being “politically correct” to appease the media and Democrats on Monday in a relatively rare direct criticism of his emerging competitor.

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This week, while discussing the war in Israel, sparked by terrorist attacks by Iran-backed Hamas, DeSantis said he wouldn’t support any Palestinian refugees from Gaza being resettled in the United States, noting that surrounding Arab countries should take them instead. “We cannot accept people from Gaza into this country as refugees. I am not going to do that,” he said in Iowa. “If you look at how they behave — not all of them are Hamas, but they are all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist. None of the Arab states are willing to take any of them.”

Following his strong stance against accepting refugees from the area, his campaign was successful in forcing his competitors, including Haley, to comment on the matter. “There are so many of these people who want to be free from this terrorist rule,” she said Sunday on CNN.

“America has always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists, and that’s what we have to do,” she continued.

While Haley encouraged sympathy for the plight of civilians in Gaza, she does not support the U.S. accepting refugees from the region.

Haley additionally asked CNN’s Jake Tapper, “Where are the Arab countries? Where are they? Where is Qatar? Where’s Lebanon? Where’s Jordan? Where’s Egypt?”

“Why aren’t they opening the gates? Why aren’t they taking the Palestinians? You know why? Because they know they can’t vet them, and they don’t want Hamas in their neighborhood,” she said, predicting that blame will be placed on Israel and America for not “doing more.”

Her campaign reiterated to the Washington Examiner, “Nikki Haley opposes the U.S. taking in Gazans. She thinks Hamas-supporting countries like Iran, Qatar, and Turkey should take any refugees.”

In response to Haley’s segment in which she noted America’s history of sympathy for affected civilians, DeSantis said, “I get it. Nikki Haley would import people. That’s been her position. I get that.”

“I’m willing to speak the truth,” he said of how he differs from her. “She’s trying to be politically correct. She’s trying to please the media and people on the Left. I don’t care about that. I’m gonna speak the truth and let the chips fall where they may.”

DeSantis isn’t the only one taking this approach to halting Haley’s newfound momentum.

In a recent memo to donors, the co-chairman of the super PAC supporting Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) presidential bid, Rob Collins, said, “No serious person thinks a moderate will win this primary no matter how many elite insiders champion their candidacies,” in reference to the former U.N. ambassador.

He noted that Haley had started generating buzz as a better challenger to former President Donald Trump than the previously unmatched second-place contender, DeSantis. But, dismissing her politics as centrist, Collins suggested Republican voters won’t be swayed by her.

He also pointed out that the same people who initially called on Republicans to rally behind DeSantis, who has dropped significantly in the polls since entering the 2024 race, are now pressuring candidates to get out of Haley’s way. “We also reject this advice,” Collins told donors.

As for the materializing centrist line of attack on Haley, a spokesperson for her campaign told the Washington Examiner in a statement, “Desperate campaigns say desperate things.”

“Nikki has a long and strong conservative record, both as South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador,” the spokesperson added.

While Haley got off to a slow start in her campaign, she started to see real traction following the first Republican debate in August. She similarly gained high ratings from viewers during the second Republican debate last month. And while DeSantis’s performance polled better than hers on both occasions, she managed to soar past the Florida Republican in the pivotal first-in-the-nation primary state of New Hampshire, taking his second-place spot in a new poll. She has additionally seen a rise in her positioning in national polling to third place and just 7 points behind DeSantis, per Morning Consult.

And with foreign policy becoming a prominent 2024 point as the war in Ukraine continues, China’s threat looms, and one of America’s greatest allies, Israel, goes to war with terrorists, Haley seems poised to rise even further, having focused much of her campaign on U.S. policy toward China.

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The new line of attack from opponents alleging her centrism comes amid her upward trajectory and, according to Republican strategist Susan Del Percio, is in a bid to urge more conservative primary voters away from her. However, she predicted this wouldn’t be successful. “If you’re wildly conservative, you’re staying with Donald Trump,” she explained. “But if you’re not, then Nikki Haley is an appealing figure.”

Percio pointed to the polling declines for Scott and DeSantis’s campaigns, adding, “They’re obviously desperate to pick up some momentum.”