Energized, Wistful Haley Makes One More Pitch for Undecided Caucusgoers

ANKENY, Iowa — An energized Nikki Haley, fresh off a strong performance in a televised CNN debate Wednesday night, returned to this small community north of Des Moines Friday morning to make one more pitch to potentially undecided voters and urge supporters to seal the deal by caucusing for her Monday night.

The noontime event was something of a triumphant homecoming for the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador. It was just 11 months ago that she made one of her first appearances in Iowa in a much smaller venue in this suburb of the state capitol.

And in a sign that she’s surging at just the right time, many of the more than 200 people who showed up to see her at Toast, a chic event venue in the community’s recently developed entertainment district, said they were seeing her for the very first time, just four days before Iowans gather to tell America their preference for the Republican presidential nominee.

Much of what Haley told attendees, who ranged from babes-in-arms to people in their 80s, was similar to what she had said while onstage with GOP rival Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Wednesday night.

Televised political debates, after all, are usually little more than a candidate’s stump speech sprinkled with zingers intended to deflate opponents and linger in listeners’ minds.

But Haley also departed from script and struck a wistful tone, especially after a lengthy, moving introduction by Bill and Connie Gorius, longtime Ankeny residents, who were among her earliest grassroots champions in the state.

“You just completely touched my heart in more ways than you know,” Haley said as she stepped onto the stage.

“We’ve campaigned together … all these months, and there’s some sadness in the fact that with the arrival of the caucuses, it means that we’re leaving,” she said.

Breaking into a smile, she continued: “We’ve done so many things in the weeks and months since … you know, driving a combine on a farm or my holding a pig or going to the state fair together or talking with people who own small businesses.

“I feel like I really do love you,” she said. “I fell in love with the fact that you’re patriotic, and that you’re driven by your desire to create a better America.

“You didn’t have to do any of this, any of the time, and you just kept volunteering … I’m so grateful,” she continued.

With her smile dissolving mischievously at the corners, Haley added, “But I told my team ‘We’ve got to take them on the road the next four days because I think you’re both amazing.’”

Though former President Donald Trump continues to lead all challengers by a wide margin in recent polls — the website FiveThirtyEight put his support in the final weeks of the Iowa contest at 52.3% — Haley appears to be gaining ground.

A Suffolk University poll of likely Republican caucusgoers released Thursday found that Haley is now the top choice of at least 20% of those planning to caucus on Monday.

This puts her decisively ahead of DeSantis, who effectively cast his lot on securing a good showing in Iowa, and now appears to be headed for third place, with 13% of caucusgoers saying they plan to support him.

Another poll, also released Thursday, the highly-reliable Iowa State University/Civiqs poll, has Haley and DeSantis knotted up at 14%.

As she did on Wednesday night, Haley used the balance of her remarks to lay out her position on issues ranging from border security and tax cuts for small businesses to national security and school choice.

But the main thing she wanted was to stoke the crowd’s excitement for the impending caucuses, a vote that will be preceded by a blizzard in most of Iowa on Friday followed by frigid temperatures by the time caucus venues open their doors Monday evening.

“I know why I am excited,” she said. “Because it is the culmination of 11 months worth of work, of going all over this state multiple times, and of getting to answer your questions and take pictures with you and being the last one to leave.

“So I know why I’m excited, and I also know why you are excited — because all of the [campaign] TV commercials will go away, as will all of the [unwanted] mail, and all of the text messages,” she chuckled.

Gesturing to the crush of reporters in the room — the contingent itself, from news organizations from around the world, was nearly as large as the audience itself — Haley said she suspected Iowans would be happy to see them go as well.

“Truthfully, I know you’re ready to see everybody go … but at the same time, there’s something special about the fact that it all starts with you,” she said.

“You set the tone for the country … It’s a pretty cool thing when you think about it,” she said. “You get to set the tone for where you want our country to go.

“And if you look at where our country is, it’s unsettling, right?” she continued. “You don’t need to look at the news to know that, you feel it. You feel it. When you go to the grocery store, you feel it. When you go to the gas station, you feel it. When you pay your mortgage bill, your insurance, payment, everything that we have to pay, it’s all going up.”

“So we know we have to do things to get our country back on track,” Haley said. “But we have to acknowledge some hard truths if we’re going to make that happen. Republicans have lost the last seven out of eight popular votes for president. That’s nothing to be proud of. If we want to win again, the only way we’re going to do that is if we have a new generational leader that puts aside the negativity and baggage of the past and focuses on the solutions of the future.”

With that, Haley turned to Donald Trump.

“I agree with a lot of his policies,” she said. “But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. You all know that. Chaos follows him and we just can’t be a country in disarray and have a world on fire and have four more years of chaos … because we won’t survive it. You don’t defeat Democratic chaos with Republican chaos.”

Haley again pointed to polls that suggest she could be the only Republican running for president who would handily defeat President Biden in the fall.

As she did in Wednesday’s debate, Haley said she has no doubt such a resounding victory would sweep Republicans into offices ranging from governors to school board members.

“A double-digit win would also be a mandate,” she said. “A mandate to stop wasteful spending and get our economy back on track, a mandate to get our kids reading again, a mandate to go back to the basics on education, a mandate to secure our border … and a mandate for a strong America that we can all be proud of.”

With that, Haley brandished a caucus card, basically a promise to caucus on her behalf on Monday.

Pacing the stage with the card held high, Haley reminded the audience that the pundits all believe that a Trump victory is a foregone conclusion.

“You have to get tired of that right? I told someone just the other day when they asked what I thought would happen, that I would ask the people of Iowa,” Haley said.

“I know many of you in this room are still making up your mind. You’re still figuring out where you want to go. But I will tell you this, I trust you,” she continued. “I trust that you did your homework. I trust that you know where you want the country to go.

“You deserve an America without chaos. You deserve an America without drama. You deserve better than … a couple of 80-year-olds running for president. You deserve better,” she said.

Afterwards, as Haley posed for pictures with what seemed like scores of supporters, Jon Erkkila, a resident of Ankeny, explained why he intends to caucus for her Monday night.

“I’ve been following her for a long time — probably all the way back to 2016,” he said. “At the time, you might remember, Trump was just beginning the process of taking over the party, and she was one of the very few people, way back then, that kind of stood up to him a little bit.

“I always respected her for that,” he said. “At the same time, she was a good governor and I was kind of on board with what she was doing in South Carolina.”

Erkkila said his knowledge of her record was a driver in his decision to go and hear what she had to say when she spoke in town for the first time.

“It was early in the process — right in that building over there,” he said, gesturing toward a window that looked out over a parking lot.

“But she really confirmed what I already believed about her,” he said.

Asked what he believes makes Haley a viable alternative to Trump, Erkkila didn’t hesitate before offering his answer.

“First of all, I believe that she’s far more center right than far right, and I think that’s what we need right now,” he said.

“For example, you know, for my entire adult life, abortion has been a push-pull issue that no one will solve — and no one is ever going to ‘solve’ it, right? But the extremes always get the attention,” he said.

“For me, Haley talks about the issue in a way that makes sense to me, and in a way that might enable people to reach some kind of common ground on the issue. “

During Wednesday night’s debate, Haley described herself as “unapologetically pro-life” but warned against “playing politics” with the issue.

“Our goal should be: How do we save as many babies as possible and support as many moms as possible?” she said.

“We are not going to demonize this issue anymore. We are not going to play politics with this issue anymore. We’re going to treat it like the respectful issue that it is,” Haley added.

For Erkkila, that response was a home run.

“I’ve never heard anybody else have the guts to say that,” he said. “They’re always afraid of upsetting someone. I think she’d be a fearless kind of leader.”

Asked how he thought the brutal weather might impact the outcome of the caucuses, Erkkila said he’d been thinking about this.

“This is my fifth caucus, as I moved here from Michigan, so I’m not an expert, and it’s hard to say how the weather will affect the results,” he said. “I mean, there are some who suggest that Trump has a lot of older voters and there’s a real question about whether they’ll turn out three hours after sunset when it’s -8 degrees.

“At the same time, it’s equally likely they’ll go out no matter what. The Trump people are a very loyal bunch.

“The bottom line is we just don’t know, and we won’t know until Monday night,” he said.

A short distance across the room, Phyllis Seuferer of Des Moines, spoke enthusiastically to people standing near her, gripping a Nikki Haley campaign sign in her hands.

“At 85 I don’t like to do a lot of things, but I decided I would like to see Nikki Haley and asked my daughter to drive me,” Seuferer said.

With a twinkle in her eye, she went on to explain that she’d been approached by a number of people she knew and all of them kept urging Haley on her.

“You should go with her,” they said. “But, you know, I don’t know if that’s the right thing to do or not do, so I decided I needed to find out for myself,” she said.

Seuferer said while she didn’t know which candidate the situation would favor. She does believe that if the current forecast for icy cold holds true, it will greatly diminish participation in this year’s caucuses.

“It’s going to be hard,” she said. “When it comes to me, you know, these days I’ve slowed down quite a bit. But if the caucus is held in a place I can reach without too much exposure to the cold, I still might make the effort.

“I like to help people. And I’d like to help Nikki Haley,” Seuferer said.

Bill and Connie Gorius have lived in Ankeny for 45 years and never seriously got involved in electoral politics before they met Haley.

“Eight months ago, we were sitting where you are,” he said before he and his wife welcomed Haley to the stage.

“To tell you the truth, my wife and I usually cancel each other out when it comes to elections, and we were even debating staying home … but we decided we would not be doing our duty as American citizens if we did that.

“So we did what we normally do,” he said. “We looked at the policy positions of the various candidates. We watched a lot of YouTube. We read a lot of stuff online. And then we thought, ‘Okay, it’s time to get out there and actually see these candidates in action.’”

Bill Gorius said when he and Connie returned home from their first Nikki Haley event, “We looked at each other. We thought, ‘Wow.’ Something was different about that.”

“Then we talked a little bit more and thought, ‘Maybe we better go back. Try this a second time — like we did when we had kids,’” he joked, provoking a loud laugh from the audience.

The couple decided to dig a little deeper into the policy positions of the candidates and as they did, “Believe it or not, even though we cancel each other out most of the time, we both found ourselves gravitating toward Nikki Haley — a miracle in itself.

“We thought, ‘We’re gonna go to these forums, these town halls, these debates, you name it,’ and when we did, we looked at two things regarding the candidates — first, what is the true character of that person? And are they fit to lead our country forward? And I can tell you without any reservation, Nikki Haley is by far, the best we’ve seen,” he said.

“She’s going to bring the best out of all of us. She’s going to bring us together. She’s going to reunite the United States of America,” he added.

Gorius emphasized that he was speaking from the perspective of a voter, as someone who has been “one of you, all my life.”

“And from that perspective, having been to, I don’t know 15 or 20 events, we tell you with confidence, Nikki Haley’s the real deal,” he said.

It fell to Connie Gorius to talk about what’s next, the caucuses on the 15th.

“We’re proud of Iowa and we want to continue to be proud of Iowa and the role it plays because of these caucuses,” she said. “Negative 15 degrees is tough, but one thing Nikki Haley says all throughout her speeches is ‘No whiners.’

“Negative 15 is a whiner, but we plan to caucus to hope everyone that has some ability to do so will attend their caucus as well,” she said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue