Previously serving as governor of South Carolina and as UN Sharma, who recently started her presidential campaign here, emphasized her heritage as an Indian American woman while also rejecting identity politics and asking for a new generation to govern.
Tim Scott, the sole black Republican in the Senate (appointed by Haley more than ten years ago), began a cross-country trip from Charleston the very following day. He focused on his family’s cotton to Congress tale and said, “America is not defined by its original sin.”
In preparation for a prospective confrontation in 2024, Haley and Scott met up in Charleston on Saturday. They took part in a public discussion with other current and potential GOP presidential candidates that was organized by the conservative Christian organization Palmetto Family Council. In a crucial early-primary state, the event presented candidates’ elevator pitches to a sizable audience.
Additionally, it united two South Carolina Republicans who had previously cooperated and may go on to fight for a similar 2024 course, though Scott’s plans are not yet known. Republicans in South Carolina emphasize that there will be fierce competition for the state’s voters regardless of who wins the election.
Many candidates for 2024 have descended on South Carolina to court its evangelical leaders. Vivek Ramaswamy, a businessman and author who rallied the audience against what he calls “wokeism,” was another speaker at the “Vision ’24” forum on Saturday. Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, advised the audience to “stay tuned” for an announcement in April regarding his potential presidential bid.
Both former President Donald Trump, who announced his 2024 campaign last fall, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to enter the race, did not attend. Others who were considering runs in 2024, like former vice president Mike Pence, were also not present. Pence has established strong ties with the evangelical community and delivered his first speech in public since leaving office at a dinner hosted by the Palmetto Family Council, a non-profit that promotes public policy.
Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), John Neely Kennedy (R-La. ), Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), and Tulsi Gabbard, a former representative from Hawaii who ran for president as a Democrat in 2020 but defected from the party last year, were also present at the Vision ’24 forum.
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Nikki Haley, Tim Scott Potential 2024 Presidential Rivals
Scott and Haley were welcomed with standing ovations as they entered and exited the stage, and they both reaffirmed their messages from the most recent events. The energy in the room increased as Scott paced the floor, denouncing those who call the Constitution a sexist, racist, outdated document and seek to hook people on the drug of victimhood, citing his grandfather who believed in the goodness of what America would one day be despite Jim Crow prejudice.
People who are familiar with Haley and Scott described them as having a friendly relationship and noted that they have collaborated frequently over the years, including in 2015 when a self-described white supremacist killed nine people at a historic Black church in Charleston.
Scott began his political career on the Charleston County Council and later served in Congress before Haley appointed him to succeed Sen. Jim DeMint in 2012. Haley was the governor. The contentious and widely reported decision to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina State House was swiftly signed into law thanks to Scott’s backing.
Scott and Haley were both ready to “have uncomfortable conversations in places where Republicans don’t typically go and feel comfortable having conversations,” according to Haley’s spokesman at the time, Rob Godfrey.
Stroman, who worked with both Scott and Haley at the state party but has not endorsed a candidate for 2024, emphasized that Haley has experience in executive roles while Scott has a legislative background. He continued, “Haley is taking advantage of her status as the first Republican to officially enter the race against Trump.”
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