Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) may have been center stage at Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate, but former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley appeared to be top of mind to most candidates.
Haley, who has seen a steady rise in polls in recent weeks, faced repeated and occasionally personal attacks from multiple candidates. Biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy was the most aggressive, going after Haley on everything from her 25-year-old daughter’s use of TikTok to her position on Ukraine and her tenure on the board of Boeing — which he likened to becoming a military contractor.
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DeSantis blasted Haley’s treatment of China during her gubernatorial tenure and accused her of writing “the Chinese ambassador a love letter.” The Florida governor, who has struggled with months of bad headlines and stagnant poll numbers, attempted to offer a contrast by noting his record.
“I banned China from buying land in this state,” DeSantis said. “We kicked out adversities, and we kicked the Confucius Institutes out of our universities. We’ve recognized the threat, and we’ve acted swiftly and decisively.”
Haley pushed back by accusing DeSantis of allowing a company to manufacture Chinese military planes in Florida.
The Haley and DeSantis campaigns had been going after one another for weeks leading up to the debate, sparking predictions that the sparring would come to a head on Wednesday.
Most of the attacks, however, came from Ramaswamy.
Haley, who came into the night facing high expectations due to her strong performances at the previous two debates, received one of the loudest rounds of applause of the night when she took on Ramaswamy for mentioning her daughter.
“She made fun of me for actually joining TikTok while her own daughter was actually using the app for a long time,” Ramaswamy said of Haley. “So you might want to take care of your family first before preaching to anyone else.”
“Leave my daughter out of your voice,” Haley immediately replied, not waiting for the moderators to give her the opportunity. “You’re just scum.”
She also took criticism for offering a centrist stance on abortion, which she vigorously pushed back on. While calling herself “unapologetically pro-life,” Haley urged finding a path to unity on the matter, saying: “We don’t need to divide America over this issue anymore.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) pressed Haley and DeSantis to support a 15-week federal abortion limit, which she declined to do on the grounds that it was setting an unrealistic expectation for voters.
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Still, she pledged she “would support anything that would pass because that would save more babies” without committing to any time frames.
Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner in the 2024 race who has declined to participate in the primary debates, has begun targeting Haley more amid her rise in the polls. Trump hosted a counterprogramming event at the same time as the debate, in which he took jabs at his challengers.
