South Carolina governor will deliver speech about her record.
Raif Karerat
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WASHINGTON, DC: Rising GOP stalwart and mooted vice-presidential candidate Nikki Haley is slated to make an appearance in Washington on September 2, when she’ll deliver a speech about her record as South Carolina governor in the “New South.”
The event will take place at the National Press Club, as initially reported by the Washington Post.
“The governor has learned a lot through this process — and she’s trying to share our lessons learned, our successes and where we go from here,” Haley’s deputy chief of staff Rob Godfrey told Politico. “There’s a lot of good that’s come out of South Carolina over the last five years, and she’s looking forward to talking to the state and the country about it.”
He said that Haley, South Carolina’s first female and Indian American governor, will have a well-rounded story to tell when she addresses the National Press Club.
“She has a chance to speak to issues of race, issues of color, issues of gender in a way that no other Republican candidate can because of the combination of all those things she represents,” Haynes said.
When confronted with the notion of the vice-presidential ticket at the conservative RedState Gathering in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 8, the governor adroitly deflected any notion of focusing on a national campaign at first, instead referencing the still open wounds left behind by the Charleston church shooting.
“I’m not ready to think about that. I’m not ready to look into that. Because I’ve got a state to heal,” Haley said, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’ve got to make sure I build South Carolina back up to where she needs to be.”
Haynes went on to tell Politico that the shooting “put the spotlight on something about her that I think is true and powerful and … she is the face of the ‘New South.’”