She’s low in the polls, but for some Jewish Republicans, Nikki Haley is the best Trump alternative
Nikki Haley, a Republican presidential candidate, at the Christians United for Israel summit on July 17, 2023. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh July 31, 2023
As governor of South Carolina, Nikki Haley in 2015 signed the first-ever law preventing state contractors from boycotting Israel.
“I would love to give you just a really fun story on this, but I don’t have one,” Haley, now running for president, told 400 people at a recent campaign event in Deal, New Jersey. Only a third of a percent of South Carolina is Jewish, and Haley acknowledged that she had had “very little interactions with Israel” and had not known much about it. “But when that anti-BDS legislation came up, it was the right thing to do.”
It’s this early and intense support of Israel that appeals to some Jewish Republicans who, especially after the Jan. 6 riots at the Capitol, are no longer willing to vote for former President Donald Trump.
“I hope that everyone will remember what a good friend I was to Israel,” Haley, 51, said in a recent interview, “and know that I would never let up on that.”
Haley captured the attention of the Jewish community when Trump appointed her U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in 2017. There she led the fight against anti-Israel resolutions for the first two years of the administration, and became a source of pride for hawkish Israel supporters.
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, said that when she “saw Israel getting bullied” at the U.N., it evoked memories of getting teased on the playground for her skin color and ethnicity.
After she left that job, newly armed with foreign policy experience, some began to whisper that the tough but genial Haley could be a formidable contender for the presidency.
To her fans, Haley seemed the future of the party post-Trump, his bellicose nature and assault on democratic institutions. In February, at 51, she became the first serious Republican candidate to announce a challenge to Trump.
Haley has struggled to gain her footing in the contest for the Republican nomination. Compared to Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, she barely registers with voters. A recent poll showed her at 3%, DeSantis at 17% and Trump at 54%.
But some Jews say it’s far too early to write her off.
‘You don’t have to be a bully’
Haley, her supporters note, has raised a reasonable amount of campaign cash — more than $16 million, mostly from small donors — and has directed her attacks at President Joe Biden and the Democrats.
“She’s the last person Biden would want to face off against,” said Jay Lefkowitz, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and a supporter of Haley. “She is principled and focuses on policy instead of the politics of personal destruction.” He added that as governor, Haley drew “broad support from both sides of the aisle” and is “exactly what the country is looking for now — a breath of fresh air with a proven track record.”
For Jewish supporters like Lefkowitz, Haley is doubling down on what made her appeal to them in the first place.
Simone Levinson, a registered independent who was very involved in Democratic Party politics in the past, said she found Haley’s support for Israel inspiring. The New York-based real estate investor and philanthropist first met Haley in 2017 when she addressed the women’s division of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a group Levinson founded in 2009.
“She’s someone that I have been excited about,” Levinson said. She noted Haley’s executive experience, and praised her as both pragmatic and principled. The former governor, in addition to being “a friend of Israel through and through,” comes across as tough but humane, Levinson said.
Though American Jews, historically, vote overwhelmingly for Democrats, at least one columnist has posited that Haley could become the first Republican presidential candidate to win a majority of the Jewish vote in a general election.
“She’s the only candidate from either party that can, honestly, bring this country together,” said Levinson. “What I love about her is that she proves that you don’t have to be a bully to stand up to a bully.”
Taking on AOC
As Israel convulses over its government’s judicial overhaul plan, which hundreds of thousands of Israelis have protested as antidemocratic, Haley has staked out a position likely to endear her further to conservative Jewish Americans.
In public speeches and statements, appealing to evangelical Christians and Jewish Republicans, Haley criticized Biden for pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek compromise. And she called on the Democratic leadership to censure a group of progressive House members who lambast Israel. She also engaged in a Twitter spat with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, an Israel critic who has called it an apartheid state.
“We are taking names,” Haley wrote on Twitter about the nine progressive Democrats who voted against a resolution declaring that Israel is not a racist or apartheid state earlier this month. “Why does Israel get under your skin?” Haley asked Ocasio-Cortez.
Ahead of a speech at the annual Christians United for Israel summit earlier this month, Haley’s campaign published a video and her Jewish communications director, Nachama Soloveichik, released a memo highlighting her record on Israel.
“I’ve always fought really hard in support of the pro-Israel community and I’ll continue to do so,” Haley said. “We will continue to be as tough on Iran and all of the enemies against Israel and America, and we’ll continue to make sure that we have the back of Israel when I’m president.”
A path to the nomination?
Despite her current anemic support among GOP voters, Haley’s supporters still see a way for her to beat her former boss and win the 2024 GOP nomination.
“This is a marathon, not a sprint,” said Fred Zeidman, a Houston-based Republican donor, who has in recent years become one of Haley’s whisperers on Israel. Zeidman, a member of the Republican Jewish Coalition’s board of directors, said he voted to reelect Trump because of his pro-Israel policies but then condemned him after the Jan. 6 riots. He acknowledged Trump’s advantage.
“Nobody’s going to beat Donald Trump, I hate to say that,” Zeidman said. But he also shared his hope that Trump would somehow be forced out of contention by his legal troubles. Haley just needs to “keep dragging it out,” he said. “I think if she stays steady and doesn’t make any mistakes, we’re going to be okay.”
Her first test will be on Aug. 23 when at least five candidates will appear on stage in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, for their party’s first primary debate. While Trump has yet to commit to debating his rivals, the remaining candidates will each try to prove themselves the most worthy Trump alternative. DeSantis has in recent weeks lost the faith of his top donors and has sought to reset a campaign enmeshed in controversies. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s direct attacks on Trump have failed to make a dent, and former Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina have yet to resonate with voters.
Haley has not turned the combativeness she leveraged at the U.N. on Trump or her GOP rivals. But she expressed hope that a good debate performance will energize her candidacy as the campaign shifts into high gear after Labor Day.
“I don’t do anything without heels; they are good for kicking when we need to,” Haley said, repeating a joke she made during her campaign kickoff in February and in years past about being a tough woman ready to take a leadership role. “No one is going to outwork me in this, no one’s going to outsmart me in this.”
Levinson, who refused to say who she voted for in the past presidential elections, said many are underestimating Haley’s prospects, given her resume, talent for campaigning and ability to elevate the discourse when others are trying to shout and shut her down.
“She’s a force to be reckoned with,” Levinson said, describing Haley as “the Iron Lady of America,” a reference to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.
Zeidman said his hopes are Haley “catches fire” as some other candidates fold, and at the very least, she can survive the long haul and stay in the race as it winds down to a small number of candidates.
She’s the real deal,” he said. “She checks every box.”
Lefkowtiz echoed that sentiment and added: “Equally important, she’s very electable.”
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