Nikki Haley’s Lessons from
the New South

Nikki Haley officially announced her candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination on February 14, 2023. She has consistently pointed to her tenure as South Carolina’s governor as evidence of the bounty that the nation can reap if she is elected as president. Nikki Haley’s Lessons from the New South traces the major contours of Haley’s “New South” as evidenced in her gubernatorial rhetoric. Her New South lessons of unity, jobs, and hugs revolved around reforming the government, rehabilitating the state’s image, and reconciling its racial past. Haley manufactured her New South as change: progressive, forward-thinking, and new. But it was mired in continuity with the past because she reproduced traditional conservatism rooted in white supremacy. By following the rhetorical breadcrumbs of “New South,” Wanda Little Fenimore demonstrates how politicians use historical terms in supposed new-fangled ways that obscure their roots, but remain oppressive in the twenty-first century. In his 2021 Politico article, Tim Alberta wrote that Haley’s presidential pitch would be “that she can help America get its shit together.” Her lessons from the New South are how she will most likely do it.