Back in 2010, I said “Nikki Haley is likely to be the subject of political ticket talk in 2012 and 2016.”
After Haley’s response to the State of the Union last night, the “make Haley the GOP nominee’s running mate!” buzzonTwitterisgetting louder. (Considering her not-so-veiled criticism of Trump, it’s a safe bet that we won’t see a Trump-Haley ticket.)
The running-mate decision is a long way off, and it’s good that the party won’t stampede into making such a consequential decision. Haley is a fairly successful Republican governor with indisputable appeal and strengths, but her record has some blemishes that would have to be explained if she appeared on the GOP ticket.
She’s the youngest governor in the country, and South Carolina’s economy is humming along nicely. When Haley was elected in 2010, South Carolina’s unemployment was 10.7 percent; in December, the state’s unemployment hit the lowest mark in fourteen years. Her approval rating is 56 percent – “one of the most popular Governors in the country.”
Endorsed by Sarah Palin in 2010, Haley’s initial signature issue was ethics reform and shaking up a self-serving old boys’ network in Columbia. Haley’s efforts are mostly frustrated on this front. She’s still trying to get the state legislature to stop policing itself through ethics commissions in the House and Senate. A Post and Courier investigation found state lawmakers using campaign funds to “hire their own companies, pay parking tickets, purchase an AARP membership – and even buy a used BMW convertible for ‘parades.’”
The governor has made her own missteps, minor in the eyes of her fans, significant in the eyes of her foes. In 2013, Haley herself agreed to pay a $3,500 fine for not properly identifying all donors to her 2010 campaign. She received“an estimated $380,000 worth of free football passes to University of South Carolina and Clemson University football games during her first four years as governor” a legally-permitted way to work around limits on gifts to lawmakers. When Haley’s then-14-year-old daughter took a job in the State House gift shop, the governor’s foes howled about nepotism.
State government hasn’t always been a well-run machine under Haley. A massive data breach at the South Carolina Department of Revenue exposed millions of state taxpayers to the risk of identity theft. An audit of South Carolina’s Department of Social Services found “152 violent, unexpected and unexplained deaths of children between 2009 and 2013 do not appear in the state law enforcement database,” suggesting the state agency simply failed to report them. After 36 dams failed during floods in Columbia last fall, Haley promised a review of the state inspection program; only a handful of inspectors keep watch over 2,400 dams.
Haley’s signature moment was her successful effort to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state-capitol grounds after the abominable murder of nine black Charleston churchgoers. She called it a “deeply offensive symbol of a brutally offensive past,” garnering rave reviews from the national media; some Republicans may see her most memorable act as a bow to political correctness.
Does Haley belong on any Republican nominee’s list of running-mate options? Absolutely. But there are a lot of good options, and the ability to give a strong, short speech after 10 p.m. on a January night shouldn’t rank among the top criteria.
Slow Down the Haley-For-Veep Talk