Nikki Haley campaign in Charlotte just days ahead of NC primary, Super Tuesday
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) — Friday night’s rain didn’t stop Nikki Haley supporters from stopping by South End to listen to their first choice for president.
Haley made her final case for their votes at Norfolk Hall ahead of North Carolina’s March 5 primary during her cross-country blitz to Super Tuesday.
The Republican presidential hopeful and former South Carolina governor made three campaign stops in York and Lancaster counties – but this was her first in Charlotte proper.
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For many supporters, this was their first time hearing Haley in person.
“You’re in for a treat,” said York County Republican Congressman Ralph Norman.
Haley discussed several ways she wants to “save America” including how she would fix the economy. One of her methods is by attacking COVID loan fraud.
“The first thing we do is we claw back the $100 billion of unspent COVID dollars that are still sitting out there,” she said. “Instead of 87,000 IRS agents going after middle America, we go after the hundreds of billions of dollars of COVID fraud. One out of every $7 was spent fraudulently.”
“If 8 percent of our budget is interest, quit borrowing. Cut up the credit cards,” she continued. “You have to balance the budget every day. I had to balance the budget as governor. Why is Congress the only group that refuses to balance the budget? Well, stop the spending. We’ll stop the borrowing, we’ll eliminate the pet projects, and I will veto any spending bill that doesn’t take us back to pre-COVID levels, that will save us trillions.”
Haley also encouraged Congress to tackle the border security bill — despite direction from former president Donald Trump to hold off until after the election.
“The good part about that border bill was it strengthened asylum laws. We have to strengthen the asylum laws because 3 million illegal immigrants came in under the Trump watch because our asylum laws weren’t strong enough,” she said. “The weak part of that bill, it didn’t have remain in Mexico and we need to have that. … We can’t wait one more day to pass a strong border bill Congress needs to get in a room and figure it out, and Trump needs to stay out of it, period.”
Among of the South End crowd was 16-year-old Eion Mullins, who drove from Virginia to hear Haley speak on a birthday trip. He says if he were old enough to vote, she would get it.
“Most of it is because she is younger, and she was a phenomenal governor,” Mullins said. “And at the UN she faced dictators and was strong. And that’s hard to do. And I feel like we need that.”
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Rob Almqusit says he only lives about 20 minutes the venue, so he made sure to attend the rally. He says right now Haley is the best candidate America has.
“I early voted and it’s not looking good, but it’s not over till it’s over,” Almquist said. “So I’m hoping Super Tuesday, you know, defies the polls and makes a big difference. But we’ll see.”
Haley ended her speech saying the primaries are important because this is where voters are really heard. She plans to make at least six more stops across the country before polls open in North Carolina and 14 other states for Super Tuesday.
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