At a small Christian university in northwest Iowa, multiple seekers after the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination told Rep. Randy Feenstra (R-Iowa) why faith matters to them.
Among all the presidential hopefuls’ pitches, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley’s stood out. She mounted a proactive defense of her decision to oversee the removal of the Confederate battle flag from South Carolina’s statehouse grounds.
“You’ll remember we had that horrific shooting at Mother Emanuel church,” Ms. Haley told Mr. Feenstra and his wife, Lynette, while sitting with them and her daughter, Rena Haley, on stage at Dordt University on Dec. 9.
In June 2015, while Ms. Haley was governor of South Carolina, Dylann Roof shot and killed nine churchgoers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, a historically black house of worship in Charleston, South Carolina.
“They pulled up a chair and prayed with him for an hour, and when they bowed their heads in that last prayer, he began to shoot,” she said.
“The killer’s manifesto came out two days later, and he was draped in the Confederate flag,” Ms. Haley recalled, adding that “the national media came in because it was on the heels of Ferguson.”
Almost one year earlier, in August 2014, police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a suburb of St. Louis.
Ms. Haley told Mr. Feenstra she moved swiftly to advocate for the removal of the flag after Mr. Roof’s manifesto and website surfaced, meeting with lawmakers to inform them of her decision.
“Half of South Carolinians saw the Confederate flag as tradition and heritage. The other half of South Carolinians saw it as slavery and hate. This wasn’t about me judging either side. It was getting me to get them to see the best of themselves and go forward,” she said, before noting that she couldn’t unilaterally remove the flag without the go-ahead of state lawmakers.
In July 2015, Ms. Haley signed the state legislature’s bill authorizing the removal of the flag from a flagpole on Capitol ground.
Speaking at Dordt more than eight years later, the aspirant to the Oval Office told Mr. Feenstra that the shooting occurred just days after she held a statewide “day of prayer” on June 13.
Ms. Haley, born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, is a Christian convert from Sikhism, the religion of her Indian immigrant parents.
“I truly believe that state day in prayer was preparing us for the tragedy that was going to happen. And I think it’s what saved us at the end of the day because I think it really pulled the hearts of South Carolinians,” Ms. Haley said, adding that she “saw God in that.”
Asked by Mr. Feenstra about “protect[ing] out country from the tyrants of Putin and others,” Ms. Haley said that “America has to get this right,” adding, “God help us if we don’t.”
“If we took care of Israel, Ukraine, and the border, that’s less than 20 percent of Biden’s green subsidies,” the presidential candidate claimed.
DeSantis, Ramaswamy, and Binkley
Ms. Haley spoke at the end of the Dordt event. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Catholic, kicked things off, appearing on stage with his wife, Casey.The Sunshine State’s leader referenced his frequent calls to put on the “armor of God.” His wife jumped in, noting that their daughter had just memorized Ephesians 6:10-18, the passage of the Bible from which that language comes.
“I don’t think that that was a coincidence,” Mrs. DeSantis said.
The Florida governor’s wife said faith had helped her during her battle with breast cancer.
“Having that foundation really gave me the strength,” she said.
Businessman Vivek Ramaswamy also conversed with the Feenstras. He was joined by his young son Karthik. Like Ms. Haley, Mr. Ramaswamy is the son of Indian immigrants, but he isn’t a convert to Christianity.
Although Hinduism is generally described as a polytheistic religion, Mr. Ramaswamy told them that his Hindu religion “teaches me there’s one true God [and] that he put each of us here for a purpose.”
The businessman mentioned his time at a Catholic high school; St. Xavier in Cincinnati.
“One of the things I learned is that, actually, those values were actually very familiar to the values I was educated in in my time at St. X as well,” he said.
Describing the United States as “a religiously diverse country,” he made the case for himself as an adherent of the nation’s civil religion, centered on documents such as the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.
Pastor Ryan Binkley, even more of an outsider candidate than Mr. Ramaswamy, spoke to the Feenstras with his wife, Ellie.
“God really spoke to our heart to enter this race,” said Mr. Binkley, lead pastor of the non-denominational Create Church in Richardson, Texas.
“The message was this—that America needs an economic revival, and America needs a spiritual revival,” he added.
Audience Reactions Before and After
Attendees spoke to The Epoch Times before the event started.Ann Vorthmann, who was wearing an “Iowans for DeSantis” pin, said she came in part because of her support for Mr. Feenstra, now her congressman after recent redistricting. She’s from Treynor, Iowa, almost 160 miles south of Dordt’s campus.
“We couldn’t be more happy to be here to support him,” she said. Ms. Vorthmann explained that she was ready to serve as one of Mr. DeSantis’s caucus captains.
Jessica Glanzer, another DeSantis backer, told The Epoch Times that President Trump has no shortage of fans in Iowa.
“They are emotional about Trump, I guess you could say,” she said, adding, “I definitely have some friends that are DeSantis supporters as well.”
David Rozeboom told The Epoch Times he’s “leaning towards DeSantis” but would go with “whoever can beat Trump in the primary.”
His son Lee, a recent graduate of Northwestern College in nearby Orange City, Iowa, said he was particularly eager to hear from the millennial Mr. Ramaswamy.
“He’s got some interesting ideas,” the younger Mr. Rozeboom said, noting that American politics is currently dominated by the old.
But not everyone has been sold on Mr. Ramaswamy.
After the event, Dordt student Braeden Nydam said he was enthusiastic about Ms. Haley, Mr. DeSantis, and Mr. Binkley—but not Mr. Ramaswamy.
“I agree with a lot of what he says, but there’s something about him that kind of scares me. I’m not sure what it is,” Mr. Nydam said.
Mr. Nydam’s wife, fellow Dordt student Emma Nydam, said she was thinking of caucusing for Ms. Haley.
Emma’s twin brother Hendrick, another Dordt student, told The Epoch Times he was “impressed by Nikki Haley.”
“At the same time, the new-to-politics candidates are good. I think they encourage good discussion among other candidates,” he said.
He agreed with his brother-in-law’s assessment of Mr. Ramaswamy, describing Mr. Nydam as “one of the best” he knows at reading people.
Sam Andrews, another Dordt student, said he particularly appreciated Mr. DeSantis’s comments.
“I just need to look more at them,” he said of Ms. Haley and Mr. Ramaswamy.
