South Carolina’s GOP Rep. Ralph Norman came out in full force behind Nikki Haley on the day she announced her run for president, deeming her America’s Margaret Thatcher.
‘Nikki will be a leader with an iron fist in a velvet glove,’ Norman, a Trump ally, said in introducing the former ambassador and governor at a launch event in South Carolina. ‘I believe Nikki Haley is America’s version of Margaret Thatcher.’
Thatcher served as the United Kingdom’s prime minister from 1979 to 1990 and was known as the ‘Iron Lady.’
South Carolina’s GOP Rep. Ralph Norman came out in full force behind Nikki Haley on the day she announced her run for president, deeming her America’s Margaret Thatcher
Norman is a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus and one of the 20 defectors to Kevin McCarthy‘s speakership. He is the first and so far, only member of Congress to formally endorse Haley’s bid against Donald Trump in the 2024 primary.
‘We are at a pivotal point in our nation. While the Republican candidates, values, and messages have done very well here in South Carolina, that hasn’t been the case everywhere across our great nation,’ Norman wrote on Twitter ahead of his public address.
‘It’s time for a reset and a new chapter in national Republican politics, and there’s no better person to help write that new chapter than our former governor and my good friend, Nikki Haley!’ Norman said.
Norman finally offered McCarthy his vote after the California Republican offered a number of concessions to hardliners. Norman had been pushing for the House to pass a balanced federal budget.
The congressman was long a supporter of Trump and voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021.
Text messages revealed by Talking Points Memo show Norman texted then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Jan. 17, 2021 urging Trump to invoke ‘Marshall [sic] law’ to investigate election fraud claims.
Norman told Fox News that in 2016 Trump was ‘exactly who the Republican Party needed at the time’ but ‘the Republican Party has entered a season of change.’
Haley, 51, took some veiled swipes at her opponents and doubters in Washington and their age.
‘We won’t win the fight for the 21st Century if we keep trusting politicians from the 20th Century,’ she told a crowd of supporters in Charleston, South Carolina.
‘America is not past its prime, it’s just its politicians are past theirs,’ she said in another moment.
She also promised the crowd she would work to eliminate earmarks, institute term limits in Congress and require mental competency tests for any lawmaker over 75. Congress, of course, would have to vote to limit itself in this fashion.
Haley, 51, took some veiled swipes at her opponents and doubters in Washington and their age
‘We won’t win the fight for the 21st Century if we keep trusting politicians from the 20th Century,’ she told a crowd of supporters in Charleston, South Carolina
Norman was long a supporter of Trump and voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021
While Norman is the only member of Congress so far to formally endorse Haley, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace had high praise for the former ambassador who lives in her district.
Asked by CNN if she would endorse Haley, Mace said: ‘It looks like I may or may not have multiple constituents from South Carolina running.’
‘But I’ll tell you this, Nikki Haley is a very good friend of mine, she’s a mentor, she works harder than anybody I know.’
Mace noted that Haley was the biggest name in politics who stood up for her when Trump tried to put a candidate up against her in a primary.
‘I want to see how the field shakes out see, how it’s set, but I will tell you I have great love for her and I’m excited to see her enter the race.’
Haley previously said she would not put throw her hat into the ring if Trump ran. She now has gone back on that statement.
‘I said to her a year ago I hoped she would run no matter what,’ Mace said. ‘She’s more than qualified for the job.’