HALEY’S HAWKISHNESS
Despite its rich history and connections to the U.S. military, South Carolina Republicans don’t seem to be buying former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s hawkish approach to foreign entanglements.
Eight military bases are scattered across the state. They include Parris Island, where U.S. Marines pass through boot camp—an experience fictionalized in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket.”
Just outside Charleston’s airport, near the Air Force base, sits a symbol of the modern military-industrial complex: the North Charleston Boeing Plant.
Haley’s connection to Boeing, where she served on the board of directors, has become a talking point for her foes, particularly those siding with former President Donald Trump.
Haley’s hawkish rhetoric on the Russia–Ukraine war, the Israel–Hamas war, and other flash points thousands of miles away has led some critics to dub her a “neocon,” or neoconservative. And foreign policy has become a huge part of the upcoming primary battle in S.C.
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Many South Carolina politicians, like Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Haley, have historically taken hawkish attitudes toward foreign policy.
But voters in the state that sent an outsized share of its population to serve in the Middle East have a not-so-neocon-ish view of foreign affairs, backing Trump and the anti-interventionist views he brought to the table.
“The war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake,” then-candidate Trump said during a 2016 primary debate.
Trump ultimately won the South Carolina primary, receiving almost a third of the state’s vote and raking in all fifty of its delegates. He’s on pace to trounce Haley in the state she once governed, at least judging by current polls.
“I’m a big Ron Paul guy,” S.C. State Rep. Jordan Pace, a Republican, told The Epoch Times. Paul was renowned during his 2008 and 2012 campaigns for his anti-interventionist attitudes.
Trevor Tiedeman, a senior at South Carolina’s Clemson University, commented on South Carolina politicians’ hawkish streak, telling The Epoch Times that South Carolina “breeds the worst of Republicans.”
Tiedeman said that many young people have rejected interventionism, backing Trump’s more nationalist approach to foreign policy.
South Carolinians seem to agree. Currently, RealClearPolitics shows Trump with a massive lead in the state Haley once governed: Trump has a mammoth 31-point advantage, with 63.4 percent of voters backing him compared to only 32.4 percent for Haley.
With Trump on track for a historic win in the state that’s picked most eventual nominees for decades, hawkishness seems increasingly unpopular in the Palmetto State.
—Nathan Worcester and Joseph Lord
ELECTION INTEGRITY
Massive voter fraud allegations that marred the 2020 election spurred a political and grassroots movement from coast to coast to pursue an array of election reforms designed to increase election integrity.
However, with just months left ahead of the 2024 election, Republicans say little was mended, especially in contested states where they thought fixes were needed most.
Much concern is centered around five key swing states that became the focus of 2020: Georgia, Pennsylvania, Arizona, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Election reforms tend to follow party lines. Democrats commonly castigate increased election security measures as voter suppression, while Republicans often condemn laws and directives that loosen security as aiding and abetting voter fraud.
But in spite of GOP-led efforts to address the voter fraud concerns that marred the 2020 election, an analysis of the five key swing states finds little fundamental change.
And reports show that Democrats have been more successful at loosening voting laws than Republicans have been at strengthening them.
In a Brennan Center for Justice report, the left-leaning, non-profit, law and research foundation found that 23 states enacted 53 laws relaxing election security restrictions in 2023, while 14 states enacted 17 laws tightening them.
Of the 14 states that tightened voting procedures, Trump won all but one (New Mexico) in both 2016 and 2020. The 14 states listed by the Brennan Center include Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Notably absent from that list are the five states likely to determine the outcome of the 2024 presidential contest.
Though Georgia passed some reforms, Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore, a Republican, told The Epoch Times, “Nothing of substance has changed since 2020. Every mechanism to facilitate a steal is still in place.”
In Michigan, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used her post to shoot down a series of election integrity bills sent to her desk by the then-GOP-controlled state legislature.
The situation is the same in Wisconsin, where Democrat Gov. Tony Evers has vetoed over a dozen Republican election integrity bills.
In Pennsylvania, progress toward reforms has been stymied by the state’s divided government.
“We are confronted with the unfortunate reality that the Democrats are in control of the House and the governor’s mansion, and have blocked any meaningful reforms to secure our elections heading into 2024,” Pennsylvania state Sen. Doug Mastriano, a Republican, told The Epoch Times.
In Arizona too, few changes have been made.
And Mark Finchem, a former state representative and unsuccessful Republican candidate for secretary of state who’s pushed for heightened election integrity, said that these changes are unlikely to materialize before 2024.
“The same people are still in charge,” Finchem told The Epoch Times.
Election integrity is an issue that has remained divisive since 2020. And with little to no changes in the most important state, the issue could remain an important one for years to come.
—Steven Kovak and Joseph lord
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- President’s Day holiday.
Early voting is underway in South Carolina, The Epoch Times’ Nathan Worcester reports. Already, the contest between Trump and Haley has drawn more votes than the entirety of President Joe Biden’s largely uncontested primary battle.
During a surprise appearance in Philadelphia, Trump announced a new line of “Trump Sneakers,” The Epoch Times’ Joseph Lord reports. The shoes come in three variants, including a limited edition style dubbed the “Never Surrender High Tops” that sold out within minutes of their announcement.
An article from RealClearPolitics explores the Trump-world relationships between the Trumps, Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, and Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel.
Vice President Kamala Harris has taken an increasingly active role in campaigning, according to an article from CNN.
