How 'deeply conservative' Nikki Haley dressed up her right-wing ideology in 'moderate drag': analysis

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, the third-place candidate in the 2024 GOP presidential primary, has been trying to portray herself as a moderate. And it may be working: Polls indicate that Nikki Haley would be quite competitive against Democratic incumbent President Joe Biden if she somehow managed to get her party's nomination.

Former President Donald Trump remains the party's clear frontrunner, leading the second-place candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, by 41 percent in a CNN poll released on October 12 and by 46 percent in a Fox News poll released a day earlier. But an NBC News poll found that in a hypothetical Biden/Haley matchup, Haley would have a 4 percent advantage over the president.

In an article published by The New Republic on October 16, Austin, Texas-based journalist Ana Marie Cox lays out some reasons why "far-right" Haley isn't the moderate she is claiming to be.

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"Haley has little else but far-right positions and deeply conservative policies in her portfolio," Cox explains. "She has supported granting fetuses civil rights, a pseudo-scientific arrangement that once undergirded Ireland's abortion laws…. She’s anti–gun control and wants metal detectors and law enforcement stationed at every school."

Cox continues, "She has said that Florida's 'Don't say gay' bill 'doesn't go far enough,' she has pledged to fight any measure to limit police funding, she believes that critical race theory 'is going to hold back generations of young people.' In a roundabout way — since CRT scaremongering is an excuse to ban books — I suppose she's right about that."

Cox describes Haley as a "gifted ideologue clothed in moderate drag," noting that among independents, she "beats Biden more than any other Republican candidate."

"There's still no sign that Haley will overtake Trump in the polls and seize the nomination on her own," Cox observes. "But I would still say that everything is going exactly to plan."

READ MORE:How 'long shot' Nikki Haley underscores Biden’s 'vulnerabilities'

Ana Marie Cox's full New Republic article is available at this link.