Nikki Haley teams up with Don Bolduc for N.H. town halls

The GOP presidential hopeful is looking to claim her lane in the 2024 contest, which already includes the former president in whose administration she served

Nikki Haley greeted voters at a town hall campaign event Thursday evening in Exeter, N.H.Robert F. Bukaty/Associated Press

EXETER, N.H. — When former United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley came to this part of New Hampshire last fall, she campaigned in support of retired Army Brigadier General Don Bolduc’s bid for US Senate. This time, Bolduc returned the favor and is supporting Haley’s newly launched presidential campaign.

Bolduc joined the former South Carolina governor for a town hall event in Exeter Thursday night with another planned for Manchester on Friday. The appearances come as Haley seeks to galvanize her public persona in the state that will hold 2024′s first-in-the-nation Republican primary.

Speaking to a room filled with about 200 people, Bolduc introduced Haley as a strong woman who is ready to steer the country back to the position of respect and honor it deserves.

“Even if you didn’t support me, I am asking you to support her. She is everyone’s candidate,” he said.

I am proud to endorse @NikkiHaley for President of the United States! 🇺🇸

Nikki is exactly who we need leading our country out of the mess we are in. https://t.co/ukiYEYOvnq

— Don Bolduc (@GenDonBolduc) February 16, 2023

Haley began by sharing a bit of her personal story, including how she started keeping the books of her family’s business when she was just 13 years old, before her career in accounting and then politics. She drew strong applause when she criticized the D.C. establishment as fiscally irresponsible.

“They need a good accountant,” she said.

Haley’s decision to link arms once again with Bolduc offers some clues about how she might consolidate a base within the GOP without fully alienating current and past supporters of former president Donald Trump, who appointed her to be UN ambassador in 2016.

During his primary, Bolduc falsely claimed that Trump had won the 2020 election. He flip-flopped on that point during the general election and ultimately lost to Democratic incumbent Senator Maggie Hassan. Trump waited until about a week before the general election to endorse Bolduc, then claimed Bolduc would have won if he hadn’t waffled on the stolen election claims.

Some in New Hampshire see Bolduc as a liability to Haley’s campaign. The state’s Democratic Party said she’s aligning herself with “extreme MAGA figures” who Granite Staters have rejected. And even among New Hampshire Republicans, Bolduc’s standing seems unsteady. He launched a bid for vice chairman of the New Hampshire GOP but quickly withdrew, yielding to an opponent backed by Governor Chris Sununu.

Still, others view the alliance with Bolduc as potentially beneficial to Haley in the state.

Matt Mayberry, a Republican operative in New Hampshire who lost his own congressional bid in 2020, said the fact that Haley stood by Bolduc’s side while some other prominent Republicans kept their distance before and after his loss is a strong sign that she possesses a sense of loyalty that’s rare in politics these days.

That loyalty could benefit Haley’s ground-level organizing, since Bolduc’s base includes active community members who are politically engaged and eager for change, even if they are less likely to attend traditional GOP events, like a generic rally or Lincoln Dinner, Mayberry told the Globe.

What’s more, Haley’s decision to jump straight from her campaign launch in South Carolina to town hall events in New Hampshire — where voters and activists are accustomed to directly questioning candidates, as part of the state’s president-vetting tradition — gives her a chance to prove her retail politics prowess, Mayberry said.

“She’s running like she’s running for governor, which is a great way to run in New Hampshire,” he said.

Several people who attended Haley’s first town hall said they like her but remain eager to hear from all the potential GOP presidential hopefuls, including former vice president Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, and others.

Glenn Bergeron, 75, an independent voter from Greenland, N.H., said he was pleasantly shocked to see Haley holding town halls so early in the campaign season. He said voters here are ready and willing to listen to whichever candidates make the effort to come and speak.

Bergeron has voted for Republican presidents and Democratic presidents, depending on the candidate and their values. In 2024, the nation is ready for change, he said.

“I think we’re more than ready for a woman to be president,” he said. “Either Nikki Haley or Tulsi Gabbard. I like them both. ... They’re measured. They’re practical. They listen to people. And I think that’s what we need right now.”

On Thursday night, Haley spoke for about 40 minutes on an array of topics, including border security, foreign policy, and parental rights, at one point turning to praise Bolduc as “a true patriot.” Then she took four questions from the audience.

Without harshly criticizing her fellow Republicans, she said the GOP has lost the popular vote in seven of the past eight presidential races, so clearly the party is doing something wrong. She called for term limits in Congress and “a badass woman” in the White House.

“I am willing to fight for you. I need you to be willing to fight for you,” she said.

Haley, 51, would be the first female US president and the nation’s first president of Indian descent. She has talked about the racist taunts she endured as the daughter of Indian immigrants living in a small South Carolina town, but she has insisted America isn’t a racist country.

In her first bid for public office, Haley unseated South Carolina’s longest-serving state representative. At age 38, she became South Carolina’s first female and minority governor. And after a white supremacist killed nine Black parishioners in a Charleston church in 2015, Haley backed legislation to remove the Confederate flag from State House grounds.

Amanda Hunter, executive director of the nonpartisan Barbara Lee Family Foundation, said Haley has already shown herself to be a barrier breaker for women in the political arena. Even so, as a woman of color, Haley’s presidential campaign is sure to face some of the same gender and racial biases that affect women across American society, Hunter said, citing the foundation’s research.

“Women still face so many barriers when they seek executive office, and one of them that we have found repeatedly for more than a decade is that women have to show that they are strong enough to be commander in chief, but they can’t be too tough or they risk jeopardizing likeability,” Hunter told the Globe.

“Voters say that they will vote for a man that they don’t like if they think he’s qualified, but they will not vote for a woman that they do not like,” she said. “So women are already walking a very fine line as candidates for executive office, that men don’t have to worry about.”

Despite the gendered double standard, women have increasingly presented themselves as what Hunter called “360-degree” candidates and leaders. They talk openly about not only their resumes and work-related accomplishments but also about their perspectives as women, including motherhood and family dynamics.

Amanda Gokee of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.

This article has been updated with details from the Town Hall event in Exeter, N.H.