Haley, DeSantis battle as some think it’s time to band behind one anti-Trump candidate

While Donald Trump’s commanding lead in the Republican presidential nominating race holds steady and the former president continues to rake in campaign donations by the tens of millions, increasing spats between the candidates polling in second and third place signal that the GOP race may be closing in on who could become a consensus alternative to the legally embattled Trump.

Former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley and current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have upped the tension level in recent weeks as they battle behind Trump in the polls, most recently taking shots at one another other over foreign policy, specifically when it comes to the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

In a CNN appearance earlier this month, Haley, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under the Trump administration, said that Arab countries need to take in refugees from Gaza. She then was asked to weigh in on a comment by DeSantis claiming that Gazans do not believe in Israel’s right to exist.

“America’s always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists, and that’s what we have to do,” Haley said in part of her response.

The DeSantis campaign spun off of that statement to claim Haley wanted to bring Gaza refugees to the U.S., though Haley never said that in her CNN interview.

The episode was the latest in the battle to be the consensus GOP alternative to Trump, with a little less than three months remaining before the first early nominating contests. DeSantis and Haley trail the former president by large margins but have been polling closely to one another recently. However, Haley is solidly in second place in her home state of South Carolina, which holds the First in the South GOP primary.

And the spat could be a preview of what to expect in the third GOP presidential debate scheduled for Nov. 8 in Miami as Haley and DeSantis may look to take shots at one another.

Anti-Trump Republicans have been arguing the field needs to coalesce behind one candidate who then can focus his or her attention on campaigning against the former president.

“The hope is as (other) candidates start to drop out, if you’re Nikki Haley, they will come to your side and vice versa for DeSantis,” said Jordan Ragusa, a political science professor at the College of Charleston. “It would make sense you would try to knock out your nearest competitor, assuming Donald Trump is not going to drop soon, but try to knock out or draw contrast with your nearest competitor so you can emerge in second place in Iowa or New Hampshire.”

Who do polls say is in second place?

The current field also includes North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and South Carolina U.S. Sen. Tim Scott. The large field has allowed the electorate to fracture and allow Trump to remain the favorite to win the nomination.

DeSantis was viewed early on as the candidate who could dethrone Trump as the party standard-bearer, but the Florida governor’s campaign has struggled and gone through a reset.

DeSantis remains in second place in the national polls. However, recent polls show Haley moving within one point of DeSantis or even tied nationally.

But the nomination is decided in state-by-state contests. DeSantis has kept a hold on second place in Iowa polling, while Haley’s share of the support continues to increase, according to the RealClearPolitics poll tracking.

Following Haley’s widely lauded debate performances, the former ambassador to the United Nations has become a solid second place in recent South Carolina polls, and the RealClearPolitics average of polls puts her in second place in New Hampshire, which is expected to vote about a month before South Carolina.

However, not only does Trump have an overwhelming lead in the polls, he also has a considerable cash lead over other candidates, with $15 million cash on hand. DeSantis, meanwhile, started October with $5 million cash on hand. Haley started October with $9.1 million available to spend.

Haley and DeSantis’s recent spats come as the two candidates try to show contrast with one another when competing for support from the conservative Republican base.

“In a primary, it’s often hard to draw a contrast with your opponents because they’re all of the same party and share a large portion of the same policy positions,” Ragusa said. “In a broad perspective, there’s not a lot of daylight between Haley and DeSantis.”

Tension over Gaza and more

DeSantis and Haley squabbled on social media and in dueling news releases over Gazan war refugees, despite the fact that they share the same stance on the issue, agreeing that the U.S. should not take in refugees displaced by the Israel-Hamas war.

The attack on Israel by Hamas has allowed Haley to reemphasize her foreign policy experience.

Other Republicans have worked to beef up their Israel credentials. DeSantis, who touts being the only military veteran in the race, ordered chartered flights from Florida to help evacuate Americans from Israel. A second flight arrived in Florida last Thursday.

During a recent trip to Iowa, DeSantis said the U.S. should not accept refugees from Gaza who have been displaced by the war and called for other Republican candidates to take the same stance.

And while in Iowa, DeSantis was critical of people in the war-torn region who oppose Israel.

“If you look at how they behave, not all of them are Hamas, but they’re all antisemitic. None of them believe in Israel’s right to exist,” DeSantis said in a clip played by CNN.

The DeSantis campaign and the Never Back Down political action committee, which is supporting the Florida governor’s presidential bid, zeroed in on a part of Haley’s comments from her Oct. 15 CNN appearance, accusing her of saying the U.S. should accept refugees from Gaza.

“There are so many of these people who want to be free from this terrorist rule,” Haley said on the cable news network. “They want to be free from all of that. And America’s always been sympathetic to the fact that you can separate civilians from terrorists, and that’s what we have to do.”

But during that CNN interview, Haley said countries in the Arab world should step up and never said the U.S. should take in people from Gaza.

“We should care about the Palestinian citizens, especially the innocent ones, because they didn’t ask for this. But where are the Arab countries? Where are they?” Haley said. “...Why aren’t they opening the gates? Why aren’t they taking the Palestinians? You know why? Because they know they can’t vet them and they don’t want Hamas in their neighborhood. So why would Israel want them in their neighborhood?”

State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, a DeSantis surrogate in South Carolina, wrote an op-ed praising DeSantis’ stances on Israel and criticizing Haley, and Never Back Down released an ad Monday calling Haley dangerous on China.

Haley, in the past, has called DeSantis an echo of Trump, even releasing a video of clips showing the two men making similar hand gestures while speaking and saying the same catch phrases.

Among other tension points, Haley and DeSantis also sparred in the second GOP candidate debate over whether DeSantis banned fracking in Florida.

DeSantis, for the most part, has avoided attacking Haley, instead focusing his criticisms on Trump and arguing it’s a two-man race between him and his fellow Floridian.

During stops last Thursday in Rock Hill, DeSantis did not address the recent spat with Haley and only discussed the former South Carolina governor when asked about her comments on not jailing women for having an abortion.