Nikki Haley’s path to the nomination: stand up to GOP antisemitism

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley can overtake Donald Trump and win the GOP presidential nomination. Here’s how.

With the news dominated by Hamas’ brutal attack against Israeli civilian targets, Haley can stand out by standing up to antisemitism in her party.

For decades, there has been a deep vein of antisemitic innuendo in Republican and conservative politics in the U.S.

Pat Buchanan, the former contender for the GOP nomination, famously said in 1990 that Capitol Hill was “Israeli-occupied territory.”

Now the leading candidate for the GOP nomination, former President Donald Trump, has inveighed against “liberal Jews” who want to “destroy America and Israel.” He has previously called Jews “ungrateful” to him.

He recently dined with two notorious antisemites, Nick Fuentes and the rapper Ye. Fuentes has hosted white supremacist conferences that have drawn GOP Members of Congress as speakers.

A UMass-Amherst poll from October 2022 found that one-third of Americans and two-thirds of Republicans endorse some form of the tenets of the “Great Replacement” theory, an antisemitic conspiracy theory that holds Jews are trying to replace the white working class with dark-skinned immigrants.

The prominent conservative group Turning Point USA, has hinted at antisemitic conspiracy theories, including one that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu knew of the coming attack by Hamas or gave a stand down order. This resulted in the hashtag “#BibiKnew” trending on X.

These ugly political attacks are rising along with an increase in hate crimes directed at Jewish Americans.

According to the Anti-Defamation League press release last week: “ Hate crimes data released today by the Federal Bureau of Investigation shows…single-bias anti-Jewish hate crime incidents in the country sharply rose by more than 37 percent, reaching 1,122 incidents, the highest number recorded in almost three decades and the second-highest number on record.”

The moment is ripe for Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to call out her party for allowing extremists, conspiracy promoters and hateful attitudes to fester in its ranks to gain political benefit.

Haley is currently rising in the polls. She is well-positioned to make a run for the GOP nomination because so many centrist voters see her as the “as good as it gets Republican,” in the words of comedian Bill Maher.

She already stands apart from Trump in not trafficking in disingenuous culture wars meant to demean blacks, gays, and women concerned about the loss of abortion rights.

But let’s not overstate Haley’s virtues. She condemned Trump’s actions during the January 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and called his attacks on Vice President Mike Pence “disgusting.” Yet she says she will still support Trump if he is the GOP nominee.

Recently, she drew mocking laughter for blaming congressional Democrats, and not the House Republican majority, for the ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) as Speaker of the House. In January of 2022, Haley even called on President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris to resign “for the good of the country.”

Just last week she got over her skis again when she declared that Americans who disagree with Israeli treatment of Palestinians want to excuse the violence done by Hamas.

“I don’t know how the Left justifies the beheadings…That’s between them and God. I don’t understand it and I don’t want to understand it,” Haley said in a TV interview.

Justifying barbarism is not a leftist mantra. But Haley sees that kind of hot, baseless rhetoric firing up the angry base of the GOP. It earns Haley invitations to appear on right-wing radio shows. But it contradicts her attempt to remake herself into a serious stateswoman with the temperament to deal with complicated world affairs.

It is a reminder that there have long been two sides to Haley. 

As the governor of South Carolina, she did good by ordering the Confederate Flag removed from the statehouse grounds after a white gunman killed black churchgoers.

But she is also the governor who refused to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. It was politically expedient as Republicans attacked President Obama for trying to expand the social safety net. But it was a callous act, indifferent to the suffering of thousands of poor people who needed health insurance. 

A Fox News poll from this month showed Haley doubling her support since September, vaulting her into third place with 10 percent, behind former President Donald Trump at 59 percent and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 13 percent. 

A 538 average of polling shows Haley rising to second place in New Hampshire and third place in Iowa. 

Haley would instantly make history as the first Republican woman presidential nominee and the first woman of color to lead a major party’s presidential ticket.

Her appeal is obvious. 

She needs a boost right now to set her apart as the logical alternative to Trump. She needs to persuade DeSantis, Pence, and all of the others to drop out and shift their support to her in a last-ditch effort to stop Trump.

The fuel for her to rocket to the top is to stand up and say that attacks on Jews are not part of the Republican brand.

Juan Williams is an author and a political analyst for Fox News Channel.