1 year ago
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Semafor’s David Weigel, covering former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley on a campaign swing in New Hampshire, hit upon the Republican Party’s biggest challenge heading into the 2024 cycle: its inability to connect with issues that actually matter to Americans.
Haley made an appearance at the Politics and Eggs forum, which “provide[s] New Hampshire and New England business leaders with a chance to meet with major party presidential candidates.” When Haley launched her campaign, she declared wokeness a “virus more dangerous than any pandemic,” and she clearly thought bringing that same message to a bunch of “New England business leaders” was a wise choice. Like just about everything else, she was wrong.
The cold reception was evidence that she’s been in her Fox News bubble for too long, and that even ostensible allies don’t find cruelty and bigotry particularly funny or salient. Businesses certainly don’t appreciate Republicans getting all up in their, er, business. And for a crowd that likely has described itself for years as “fiscally conservative and socially liberal,” attacking a major company over one teeny Instagram post qualifies as neither.
