Niki Haley. (RI photo)
Two South Carolina Republicans with White House aspirations are campaigning in Iowa.
South Carolina Senator Tim Scott has just announced he formed a presidential campaign exploratory committee — the last step before declaring he’s a candidate for the White House. He was in Cedar Rapids this morning. Scott, the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate, released a video and it begins by noting this is the day the first shots were fired in the Civil War.
“Today our country is once again being tested, once again our divisions run deep and the threat to our future is real,” Scott said in the video.
Scott, standing inside Fort Sumter and narrating the video himself, said Democrats are pursing a liberal agenda and promoting a culture of grievance in America. Scott has made frequent visits to Iowa, dating back to 2014, shortly after he was appointed to the U.S. Senate by Nikki Haley, who was South Carolina’s governor at the time.
Haley, who served as United Nations Ambassador during the first half of the Trump Administration, kicked off her own bid for president early this year. She spoke to an audience in Des Moines early this morning.
“You’re not seeing me come in and do a rally and leave. You’re going to see me over and over and over…We’re coming back in a few weeks,” Haley said. “We are going to touch every hand. We are going to take every question. We’re not taking any shortcuts because we’re going to do it the right way because you deserve that.”
Haley spoke at events in western Iowa earlier this week. Today’s event was aimed at women voters. “I’ve always been a fan of women. Women get things done. Women are incredible when it comes to balancing.We know how to prioritize. Regardless of what people say we don’t like the drama,” Haley said, “and we’re about results.”
Haley was the first woman to be elected governor of South Carolina and, after winning that first race for governor in 2010, she was the youngest governor in the country.