(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
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DeSantis stumps at SC Statehouse to highlight his support on Haley’s home turf [1]
['Abraham Kenmore', 'More From Author', '- January']
Date: 2024-01-16
COLUMBIA, S.C. —Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flew from Iowa to South Carolina on Tuesday to take aim at his closest GOP rival, former Gov. Nikki Haley, from her home turf and surrounded by Republican legislators who back him over her.
DeSantis’ visits to Greenville, a deeply red region of this GOP-dominated state, and the Statehouse followed his second-place finish Monday night in the Iowa caucuses, when he came in 2 percentage points ahead of Haley.
Traditionally, presidential candidates head straight from Iowa to New Hampshire, the next state in the GOP voting calendar. But DeSantis took a detour through Haley’s former stomping grounds to highlight his support for the crucial contest coming next.
His visit also came a day before the South Carolina House takes up a bill banning gender-transitioning surgery and hormones for transgender youth under 18 years old. The bill backed by GOP leadership will almost certainly pass in the chamber where Republicans hold a supermajority advantage, in a year when every legislator faces reelection.
DeSantis praised the South Carolina Legislature for taking up the bill, while simultaneously accusing Haley of giving flip-flopping “word salad” responses when asked about it.
“Initially she said it was (up to) the parents, then I think she’s now said there should be federal legislation,” DeSantis said about Haley’s stance. “I guess it depends on which Haley you talk to.”
During a debate last week with DeSantis in Iowa, Haley agreed with the proposal and others like it in other GOP states.
“We shouldn’t have any gender transitions before the age of 18,” she said. “Just like we don’t have tattoos before the age of 18, we shouldn’t have gender transformation or puberty blockers.”
Doctors and other opponents to the bill expected to advance Wednesday have testified that surgeries aren’t performed on minors in South Carolina anyway, so that part of the legislation is a nonissue. They contend puberty blockers and hormones are prescribed only after intense counseling and parental permission.
During his roughly 15-minute news conference at the Statehouse, DeSantis was flanked by about a dozen GOP legislators.
State Sen. Josh Kimbrell of Spartanburg County said DeSantis set a better example for social conservatives than Haley. Kimbrell is the author of a law approved as part of the state budget debate in 2022 that banned the Medical University of South Carolina from using state-allocated money to fund “furthering the gender transition” of youth under 16, a precursor of the latest, more expansive proposed ban.
“To make the point very clear, South Carolina is a redder state today because of the work Ron DeSantis did in Florida than the work Nikki Haley did in South Carolina,” Kimbrell, R-Boiling Springs, said in introducing DeSantis. (The freshman senator was first elected four years after Haley left the governor’s office.)
Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-Rock Hill, criticized Haley for not backing a bill in 2016 that would have required LGBTQ people to use public restrooms corresponding to their “biological sex.” The push from a former Upstate senator followed a national backlash and business boycott in North Carolina over a similar law, leading to its repeal a year later. Haley helped squash the effort here by repeatedly calling the legislation unnecessary.
Guffey said that left South Carolina behind Florida, where DeSantis signed a similar law last year.
“We didn’t have a governor who really wanted to step up and get involved, but, you know, in Florida they did,” said Guffey, also a freshman. “I think Florida is the model state whenever it comes to conservative values.”
DeSantis made clear he intends to campaign heavily in South Carolina and buy TV ads ahead of the state’s first-in-the-South presidential primary Feb. 24.
While DeSantis focused his criticism on Haley, whether or not he beats her in her home state could be irrelevant, as former President Donald Trump remains the clear frontrunner. In Iowa, DeSantis trailed Trump by a massive 30 percentage points, a historically wide margin. Trump has also lined up more endorsements from GOP leaders in South Carolina than Haley or DeSantis, including Gov. Henry McMaster.
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