Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, while announcing her presidential campaign, said the nation is ready for a "new generation of leaders" and spoke about her childhood as the daughter of immigrants from India, but Conservative Political Action Coalition Chairman Matt Schlapp told Newsmax Friday that GOP voters care more about results than they do a candidate's race or gender.
"I guess the only reaction I have that I'm mildly critical of this whole, you know, I'm not an Anglo Saxon and I'm not old, I'm a young woman of color and ethnic diversity [appeal]," Schlapp said on Newsmax's "National Report."
Republicans are "a very tolerant movement," Schlapp added. "We're a heck of a lot more tolerant than the left, which is not tolerant at all anymore. But I also think that what the Republican voters want is they want to know you're going to fight like hell against this woke mob and socialism. They don't really care how old you are. They don't really care if you're male or female. They just want you to fight like hell."
He said he gives Haley a "lot of credit" for campaigning against former President Donald Trump, as "this is a hard thing to do," considering he's ahead in all the polls.
"If Nikki Haley turns out to be the person that will fight like the dickens for the country, she's got a real shot," Schlapp added. "If it's going to be just about I'm young and ... I'm a different kind of candidate, I just think Republicans are so exhausted of the push for diversity over competence. I think she's going to have to find a new message."
Jeffrey Lord, contributing editor for the American Spectator, joined in the conversation and said he doesn't think the battle for the White House in 2024 falls between Trump and other candidates, but between Trump and the national media.
"The media is obsessed with President Trump, and so they will use any of these candidates to try and get at him in any way that they can," he said. "They will bring up Nikki Haley's case, the fact that she worked in the Trump administration; and in the case of other candidates who had supported him in the past, that will be brought up."
He added he likes Haley, a former South Carolina governor, and thinks she's "terrific," but he wants to know what ideas she is casting aside.
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