Haley set to spend millions on advertising in S.C. primary fight

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - Former South Carolina Gov. and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is preparing for a major ad buy in the Palmetto State after voting ends in the New Hampshire primary.

The New York Times reported Saturday that Haley’s campaign is making a $4 million advertising investment in television, radio and digital. That ad buy is set to begin the day after the New Hampshire primaries, the newspaper reported, quoting Haley Campaign Manager Betsy Ankney.

The report came as Haley is in New Hampshire campaigning fiercely in a state where polls have her in second place behind former President Donald Trump.

A Suffolk University poll has the former president with 52% of the primary vote there and Haley with 35%.

In the Iowa Caucuses, Haley came in third place behind Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Haley is making part of her closing argument to New Hampshire before Tuesday’s primary with ive words from the mother of Otto Warmbier, the American college student who died in 2017 after being imprisoned by North Korea.

In a three-minute television ad scheduled to air Monday, Cindy Warmbier says that Haley, while serving as U.N. ambassador at that time, “told us to be loud and fight back, to fight for justice, to fight for ourselves, and to fight for Otto.”

The words are from Cindy Warmbier’s speech at Haley’s presidential campaign launch in Charleston, South Carolina, nearly a year ago. Cindy Warmbier’s 22-year-old son, who was released by North Korea while in a coma after almost a year and a half in captivity, died days after returning to the United States in June 2017. The University of Virginia student from Ohio had been sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor on subversion charges related to trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting with a tour group.

Haley is hoping that a strong performance in New Hampshire will give her a boost in her home state of South Carolina, which has historically been influential in determining the eventual nominee. The South Carolina primary is Feb. 24.

In releasing the ad, Haley’s campaign noted that while Trump “played an important role in bringing Otto’s body home and holding North Korea able,” the then-president overshadowed that accomplishment by speaking positively about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, publicly absolving him of wrongdoing that led to Warmbier’s death. Trump said in 2019 he took Kim “at his word” that Kim was unaware of the alleged mistreatment of the American student.

Haley, who had left his istration by that time, contradicted her former boss, posting on social media that “Americans know the cruelty that was placed on Otto Warmbier by the North Korean regime.”

Haley, who finished behind former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Monday’s Iowa caucuses, has framed her campaign’s next chapter as a “two-person race” between Trump and herself.

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, whom Haley appointed to replace retiring Sen. Jim DeMint, gave his endorsement to Trump on Friday. Haley highlighted a gaffe from Trump at his rally Friday night after Scott gave him a rousing endorsement.

Trump repeatedly suggested Haley had been in charge of keeping the Capitol secure on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump ers stormed the building to try to stop his election loss from being certified. Haley was not at the Capitol that day. And Trump has consistently downplayed his istration’s failure to keep the Capitol safe or his delay in trying to call off the rioters.

“They’re saying he got confused. That he was talking about something else, that he was talking about Nancy Pelosi,” Haley said. “When you’re dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can’t have someone else where we question whether they’re mentally fit to do this.”

Even with their state’s top elected Republicans and much of the congressional delegation in New Hampshire to advocate for Trump this week, some South Carolina voters were undeterred about backing other candidates.

Haley’s successor in the governor’s mansion, Gov. Henry McMaster, traveled with his lieutenant governor and other state officials to New Hampshire Saturday to attend a Trump rally where they will campaign for him.

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