Turning Point USA Mocks Nikki Haley’s Indian Name in VP Straw Poll

Isaac SchorrDec 18th, 2023, 2:54 pm
 

Left: Charlie Kirk (Lynne Sladky) Right: Nikki Haley (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

Right-wing student organization Turning Point USA has made a point of emphasizing Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley’s Indian first and maiden names in a straw poll meant to measure support for prospective vice presidential nominees to pair with Donald Trump on the GOP ticket.

One Turning Point Action staffer working the polling booth at Turning Point’s AmericaFest conference in Arizona on Sunday posted a picture of the board, which included five potential picks: Failed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, former Fox News Host Tucker Carlson, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and Haley.

Three of the candidates were listed only by their last name, while Carlson was referred to as only “Tucker.” Haley on the other hand, was listed as “Nimarata Nikki Randhawa Haley.”

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Governor has gone by her Punjabi middle name, Nikki, since childhood. She stopped using her last name, Randhawa, when she married her husband, Michael Haley.

Nevertheless, political opponents have gone out of their way to use both her given first name and maiden name in an effort to either argue that Haley is ashamed of her Indian heritage or to remind bigots of that heritage.

Various progressives, as well as fellow Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, have invoked Haley’s name over the course of the 2024 presidential primary.

Haley trailed all of the other candidates in the straw poll, which Carlson and Lake led, but has been ascending in the GOP primary for months, rising to second place behind Trump in New Hampshire and South Carolina on the back of several strong debate performances.

In a new CBS News poll that also came out on Sunday, Haley came within striking distance of Trump in New Hampshire, closing the gap between herself and the former president by 24% as compared to September.

Turning Point founder and CEO Charlie Kirk was once an enormous fan of Haley, predicting that she would be “our first female president” in 2019, but has reversed himself more recently by delighting in Ramaswamy’s attacks on her.

“One of my favorite parts of the debate is where Vivek Ramaswamy lifts up a notebook and he says ‘Nikki=Corrupt,'” declared Kirk after the December primary debate on NewsNation. “Nimarata Haley is a perfect example of where they want to bring they Republican Party. They want to turn the page on Trumpism. Let’s go back to a perfectly-tailored, workshopped type candidate who says all the right things and is willing to declare all the right wars.”

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