How Gov. Nikki Haley’s speech compares with South Carolina actions

WASHINGTON – If Americans outside of South Carolina didn’t know Nikki Haley’s name before, a lot more definitely know it now.

The nation’s youngest governor was praised by both parties for her levelheaded response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday. But what if she had given the same address to an audience in her state?

“She wouldn’t hold office anymore,” said Gregory Torrales, South Carolina Hispanic Leadership Council president.

He is one of many in the state who see a contrast in the optimistic, reasonable and inclusive tone of the possible vice-president pick when she’s speaking to a national audience and the governor’s record back home in her conservative state – where Donald Trump holds a sizable lead in the upcoming Republican primary. Those observers point to several examples: Haley’s Arizona-style anti-immigration bill, her opposition to resettling Syrian refugees, her cautious approach on the Confederate flag issue and her refusal of millions in federal dollars in Medicaid expansion for one of the poorest states in the country.

Here’s a look at what Haley said Tuesday night, and how those words gel with her actions in South Carolina.

Haley said: “Soon, the Obama presidency will end, and America will have the chance to turn in a new direction. That direction is what I want to talk about tonight.”

It’s easy to see why Haley is an appealing spokeswoman for establishment Republicans trying to counter the influence of front-runners Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, both of whom boast caustic personalities that strike some in the party as off-putting. Haley is young – a few days shy of 44 – charismatic and the first female and minority leader of a critical primary state.

She led her state peacefully through the aftermath of the racially motivated shooting that killed nine black parishioners at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston last year, supported the subsequent removal of the Confederate flag from the Columbia Statehouse and responded to the devastating floods that battered her state last fall.

“America is being introduced to Nikki Haley as kind of a mainstream candidate who took down the flag,” said Scott Huffmon, a political science professor and polling director at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina.

“This Nikki Haley who has taken a center lane and angered some in the party for chastising the GOP – this is very different than (the) Nikki Haley who was propelled to the governorship by the tea party and the far right,” Huffmon said.

Haley said: “No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country.”

Her speech was lauded for its more compassionate, inclusive tone, countering the anti-immigration rhetoric of Trump.

“We appreciate the tone she took because she wasn’t demonizing immigrants, and not inflaming xenophobia,” said Victoria Middleton, executive director of the South Carolina branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Even so, just sounding more inclusive than other politicians is not enough, Middleton said.

“She certainly signed (Senate Bill 20), which is a terrible law – its nickname is the ‘show me your papers’ law, which could depend on whether someone looks and/or sounds foreign,” she said.

In 2011 Haley signed a bill similar to Arizona’s infamous anti-immigration legislation, which critics said encouraged racial profiling while costing taxpayers millions of dollars. South Carolina was sued by a coalition including the ACLU and the National Immigrant Law Center, and a federal court blocked major parts of the new law.

Haley said: “We removed a symbol that was being used to divide us.”

After a young white supremacist killed nine black churchgoers in Charleston last year, Haley responded to calls across the country to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse in Columbia.

Supporters say she had been waiting for the right moment. Others said she acted only because of the pressure of public opinion.

At the 2014 gubernatorial debate, she implied that the flag was a nonissue because it was not hurting the state’s image.

“I can honestly say that I have not had one single conversation with a CEO about the Confederate flag,” she said, adding that the state had resolved the issue by becoming more diverse.

Haley said: “We’re feeling a health care plan that has made insurance less affordable and doctors less available.”

South Carolina public health advocates argue that there is no good reason to reject the millions in federal dollars the state would get under Obamacare to expand health care coverage to 340,000 people in one of the poorest states in the country.

With this week’s addition of Louisiana, 31 states have expanded their Medicaid programs under the Affordable Care Act.

“Not in South Carolina,” Haley said at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference. “We will not expand Medicaid on President Obama’s watch. We will not expand Medicaid ever.”

Like some other Republican governors, Haley has said it would be too expensive and inefficient.

“This is all about ideology,” said Jamie Harrison, chairman of the South Carolina Democratic Party. “Haley is really hurting South Carolina by refusing to take this money.”

A 2012 report for the South Carolina Hospital Association written by the University of South Carolina’s Moore School of Business estimated that increasing federal funding through Medicaid would total $3.3 billion in economic output and $1.5 billion in labor income and would support nearly 44,000 new jobs for South Carolinians.

“In her own state there are hospitals closing, including the one in her hometown,” Harrison said.

For now, presidential candidates are courting Haley’s endorsement – and giving her serious vice-presidential consideration. As she rebrands herself with a more mainstream national image, Haley may leave the details of her record behind in South Carolina.

“If a candidate from the far right gets the nomination, she could become the more centrist running mate,” Huffmon said. “She’s positioned herself well for that.”