GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley received an endorsement from Marlys Popma, former executive director of the Republican Party of Iowa, during Friday’s town hall in Newton, as she fights to hold second place against Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in the Iowa Republican caucuses.
“I was an undecided voter when I walked in here today, and I am no longer an undecided voter,” Popma said, prompting applause from the audience. “I just wanted to give you my wholehearted endorsement and encourage everyone in this room to do the same thing.”
Popma, who is also former president of Iowa Right to Life, urged the Iowans in attendance to ignore the polls and media and support their candidate of choice.
“I want to tell the people in this room, this all happens in Iowa,” Popma said. “Look at what you’ve heard today and be bold. Don’t be afraid to support the person you want to support because you think that somebody else is going to win. Because that’s how we lose.”
“Let’s have a Nikki Haley explosion start in Jasper County,” Popma said, concluding her endorsement.
Haley also said during the town hall that she did not agree with former President Donald Trump’s recent comment calling his political opponents “vermin,” a term which has been criticized as echoing rhetoric used by Adolf Hitler.
“The reality is I don’t agree with that statement any more than I agree when he said Hezbollah was smart, or any more than I agree when he hit Netanyahu when his country was on its knees after all that brutality,” Haley said.
“It’s the chaos of it all, right? I think he means well. But the chaos has got to stop,” she added.
Referencing the ongoing wars in both Ukraine and Israel-Palestine, Haley said, “Let’s take them one at a time.”
“The reason that we have to see Ukraine win is so that we don’t have a bigger war,” Haley said.
She recommended giving Ukraine any “equipment and ammunition” they might need and Israel “whatever they need, whenever they need it, no questions asked.”
“If you were to take care of Ukraine and Israel with equipment and ammunition it’s only five percent of our national defense budget,” Haley said. “If we leave Ukraine, who is ever going to trust us again?”
“He’s salivating at the fact that he knows that the U.S. is going to leave Ukraine,” Haley said, referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The one thing we need the federal government to do is to shape our world, defend our allies and defeat our enemies,” Jess Yescalis, president of a political consulting firm based in Arizona, told the S&B at the event. “Foreign policy must be first and foremost for the president and that’s where Nikki Haley excels.”
Thad Nearmyer, chair of the Jasper County Republican Party, told the S&B that although he has not decided which candidate he will support, Haley has impressed him.
“I got to meet her backstage and she’s awesome,” Nearmyer said. “I could definitely see her being president. I know she could do the job.”
Linda Coen, a registered Independent who has voted Democrat in every election since President George W. Bush, said she will be voting “for the lesser of two evils.”
“I’m Independent, but I just couldn’t stand Trump. There is no way I could vote for him ever, never, would never ever vote for that man,” Coen said. “So we’re here to make a vote against him.”
“In watching her, I really want to vote for her now,” Coen said of Haley.
Lily Perrin `25, who attended the town hall with two other Grinnell College students, told the S&B that she felt like she “ought to take advantage of campaign events around caucus season.”
“Haley is a traditional conservative, which I am far from, so I can’t say I am a supporter,” Perrin wrote in a message to the S&B. “However, she is a lot more palatable to me than other Republicans in the race. I thought she was an excellent speaker who knew her audience and commanded their attention.”
Haley and fellow GOP candidates DeSantis and Vivek Ramaswamy gathered for the Family Leader’s Thanksgiving Family Forum later on Friday. The group’s leader, Bob Vander Plaats, has yet to announce which candidate he supports, an endorsement that has the potential to alter the Iowa caucuses.
Friday’s town hall came on the heels of Haley’s announcement of endorsements from 72 Iowa elected officials, community leaders and business owners on Tuesday.
Haley has recently surged in the polls, currently tied with DeSantis as Trump’s top rival in the 2024 Iowa Republican caucuses.
The October Iowa Poll revealed both Haley and DeSantis polling at 16 percent, trailing Trump significantly, whom 43 percent of likely Republican caucusgoers have indicated they will support. The Iowa Republican caucuses will take place on January 15.
Contributed reporting by Taylor Nunley.
