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South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman threw his weight behind Nikki Haley the day she announced her run for president, calling her America’s Margaret Thatcher.
“Nikki will be a leader with an iron fist in a velvet glove,” Norman, a Trump ally, said as he introduced the former ambassador and governor at a launch event in South Carolina. “I think Nikki Haley is the American version of Margaret Thatcher.”
Thatcher served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and was known as the ‘Iron Lady’.
Norman is a member of the far-right Freedom Caucus and one of 20 defectors from Kevin McCarthy’s presidency. He is the first and so far only member of Congress to formally endorse Haley’s candidacy against Donald Trump in the 2024 primary.
‘We are at a crucial point in our nation. While Republican candidates, values and messaging have done very well here in South Carolina, that has not been the case everywhere in our great nation,” Norman wrote on Twitter ahead of his public address.
South Carolina Republican Rep. Ralph Norman backed Nikki Haley in full force the day she announced her run for president, considering his US Margaret Thatcher
“It’s time for a reset and a new chapter in national Republican politics, and there’s no better person to help write that new chapter than our former Governor and my good friend, Nikki Haley.” said she Norman.
Norman finally offered McCarthy his vote after the California Republican offered a series of concessions to hardliners. Norman had been pushing for the House to pass a balanced federal budget.
Norman was a longtime Trump supporter and voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.
Text messages revealed by Talking Points Memo show that Norman sent a text message to then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows on January 17, 2021 urging Trump to invoke ‘Marshall [sic] law’ to investigate allegations of voter fraud.
Haley, 51, threw some veiled jabs at her opponents and skeptics in Washington and her age.
“We will not win the fight for the 21st century if we continue to trust the politicians of the 20th century,” he told a crowd of supporters in Charleston, South Carolina.
Norman was a longtime Trump supporter and voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election on January 6, 2021.
Norman told Fox News that in 2016 Trump was “exactly what the Republican Party needed at the time,” but “the Republican Party has entered a season of change.”
Haley, 51, threw some veiled jabs at her opponents and skeptics in Washington and her age.
“We will not win the fight for the 21st century if we continue to trust the politicians of the 20th century,” he told a crowd of supporters in Charleston, South Carolina.
“America is not past its prime, it’s just that its politicians are past theirs,” he said at another point.
He also promised the crowd that he would work to eliminate appropriations, institute term limits in Congress and require mental competency tests for any lawmaker over the age of 75. Congress, of course, would have to vote to limit itself in this way.
While Norman is the only member of Congress so far to formally endorse Haley, Republican Rep. Nancy Mace had high praise for the former ambassador who lives in her district.
Asked by CNN if he would endorse Haley, Mace said: “It sounds like I may or may not have multiple constituencies from South Carolina.”
“But I’ll tell you, Nikki Haley is a really good friend of mine, she’s a mentor, she works harder than anyone I know.”
Mace noted that Haley was the biggest name in politics who stood up for her when Trump tried to pit a candidate against her in a primary.
“I want to see how the field is shaken up, how it is established, but I will tell you that I love her very much and I am excited to see her enter the race.”
Haley previously said she would not jump into the ring if Trump showed up. She has now retracted that statement.
“I told him a year ago that I expected him to run no matter what,” Mace said. She is more than qualified for the job.