In Haley’s home state, some Republicans point fingers inward on race, history

But the men weren’t angry at Haley, who, a day after her remarks, had scrambled to acknowledge that the conflict was about slavery. She only slipped up once, one said. It was a trick question, opined another. She knows slavery caused the Civil War, argued a third.

The group — made up of three Black men and four White men who have been involved in Republican politics here in the state where Haley rose to political prominence — were frustrated with their party, feeling that it has struggled to offer an appealing message on race and effectively counter Democrats on the issue. Over plates of fried rice and Mongolian beef, they brainstormed how to improve the GOP’s pitch to minority voters, who have in many ways recoiled from polarizing and at times inaccurate comments on race and history that former president Donald Trump, Haley and other prominent Republicans have made in recent years.

“Unfortunately, we do not act proactively,” said Joe Mulé, the former communications chair of the Charleston County Republican Party. Mulé, who has also worked in journalism, said he felt Democrats have concentrated on the nation’s past wrongs, while Republicans wanted to move forward and were caught answering for it.

“We always react to something,” he added. “That’s always been the Republican Party; we always answer.”

In the wake of Haley’s comments, which triggered a firestorm in the Republican presidential primary race on the eve of the final stretch of campaigning before the first nominating contests, GOP leaders, activists and voters have been reflecting on how the party talks about race and history, which has been a divisive force in recent elections.

Maurice Washington, a former Charleston County GOP chair, convened the dinner here with associates to talk about the topic with a Washington Post reporter present. The conversation, in a state that was once a Confederate stronghold and has been grappling with its own history, offered one snapshot of a larger debate in the party. The comments in some ways contrasted with the responses from some other Republicans across the country in recent days, who dismissed the resulting fallout from comments by Haley or the other candidates.

Scholars, political strategists and civil rights leaders have expressed alarm over some remarks by influential candidates. Trump, who launched his first campaign by calling undocumented immigrants “rapists” and had falsely suggested that Barack Obama was hiding his birth certificate, is the clear polling leader in the race. He has recently said undocumented immigrants are “poisoning the blood of our country,” a line that scholars say echoes Adolf Hitler’s writings on blood purity. (Trump has rejected that comparison.) Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another Republican presidential candidate, defended new statewide education standards to teach students that enslaved Americans developed skills that “could be applied for their personal benefit.”

Some recent polls have shown Trump making inroads with Black voters amid frustration with President Biden’s policies. That has led to some Democratic concern, even as Republicans grapple over issues involving race.

Gibbs Knotts, a College of Charleston political scientist who has studied racial politics in the South, said most Republicans in South Carolina receive the same amount of support from Black voters as Haley, typically far lower than Democrats.

Knotts noted that when Haley ran for governor in 2014, she won 6 percent of the state’s Black vote, according to exit polls. Trump won 7 percent of the Black vote in South Carolina in 2020, compared with Biden’s 90 percent.

Haley faced a question at a town hall in New Hampshire on Wednesday about the cause of the Civil War. She said it was about “how government was going to run,” and after her questioner expressed surprise that she didn’t bring up slavery, she responded, “What do you want me to say about slavery?” Democrats and rival Republicans criticized Haley, and the next day she acknowledged the war was about slavery. Scholars agree slavery was central to the war.

As told by the conservatives who gathered for a meal in Haley’s home state and have observed her closely over the years, the party is at an inflection point. The group understood that Republicans have performed poorly among Black voters in South Carolina, and some members voiced hope for improvement with a crucial February primary putting Haley and her home state under renewed national attention. And the group grappled with its own feelings about how slavery and Black history should be discussed. Haley’s campaign declined to comment for this story.

South Carolina, the first state to secede from the Union more than 160 years ago, has long been central to the nation’s struggles with racism, since this port city was one of the main ingresses of captive Africans brought to North America. Haley’s own history on race has been under the spotlight here long before she was a presidential candidate.

Haley, a daughter of Indian immigrants who has spoken about observing racial discrimination against her father as a child, was governor in 2015 when a 21-year-old White man motivated by racial hatred shot and killed nine people attending Bible study in one of the country’s oldest African American churches. She removed the Confederate flag from the South Carolina State House after the shooting, and she said at the time that the flag represented “traditions that are noble” for many people and “a deeply offensive symbol of a brutally oppressive past” for many others.

Years earlier, when she first ran for governor, Haley suggested it was an action she would never take. In 2010, she told leaders of Confederate heritage groups that she didn’t see the flag as a “priority.” She said she would tell those who object to the flag flying above the State House that it “is not something that is racist” and that it is “something that is a tradition.”

On the campaign trail these days, Haley offers an optimistic message to voters in Iowa and New Hampshire: America is not racist. “We’re blessed,” she says in town halls and other events, pointing to her own trailblazing path as the first female Asian American governor.

Sitting in the center of the dinner table Saturday, Washington, who backs Trump in the presidential race, had some reservations about Haley’s answer on the Civil War. Washington, who is Black, thought she missed an opportunity when she didn’t initially mention slavery, and he asked the group if that might hurt her in a general election against Biden.

In response, those at the table said no, and as the chorus of shouting over one another intensified, Mulé, who is White and supports Trump for president, cut in to offer his assessment about Democrats having an upper hand on the politics of race.

“They’re leading us down whatever path,” Mulé said of Democrats.

“Democrats know how to be activists,” said the Rev. Samuel Rivers Jr., who is Black and has been involved in South Carolina’s Republican Party for years. “Republicans don’t know how.”

“That’s why we need to look at the Democrats and follow what they do,” Mulé responded.

Rivers made the case that Haley’s answer at the New Hampshire town hall that had focused on the preservation of states’ rights was accurate. He asked: Why shouldn’t the Republican Party center itself on pushing forward rather than re-litigating the past?

Rivers, a pastor and former state representative who had known Haley personally, felt frustrated that this was even a topic of conversation.

“She’s really being treated unfairly, a woman who is of Indian descent. Her daughter married a Black man. Haley knows what civil rights is all about,” said Rivers, who backs Haley for president. “I think it’s a distraction. And I’m gonna text her and tell her it’s a distraction, move forward.”

Rivers then turned to the man next to him, Todd Friddle, the chairman of Dorchester County’s council, who said he supported DeSantis. The reverend argued that DeSantis shouldn’t criticize Haley for her Civil War remark considering the Florida governor defended his state’s new African American history standards that said students should learn “how slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”

“The guy who said Black people benefited from slavery, that is more outrageous,” he said, elbowing Friddle, who is White, “but I’m not going to talk about another Republican.”

Kenneth Battle, who served on Haley’s Commission for Minority Affairs when she was governor, reminded the group that some enslaved people freed themselves and that their history was lesser known than that of the enslaved populations. Some Black men fought for the Confederacy, added Battle, who said he has not chosen whom he will vote for in the primary.

“But they don’t want to have that conversation,” said Battle, who is Black. “They want to define the Civil War specifically by the word slavery.”

Washington interjected: “Just to clarify, we’re not minimizing slavery in America.” Heads around the table shook.

In the suburbs of Charleston and Berkeley counties, some residents told The Washington Post that they were unmoved by Haley’s comments. Those who disagreed with what she said had mostly decided to vote for Biden, and those who were unbothered mostly said they were considering Trump.

James Ezell, who is Black, said he is planning on voting for Biden and knows Haley is “not for me.” So when the 50-year-old Summerville resident heard about Haley’s comments, it didn’t change his mind but enforced that she was “playing to her party.”

Sandra Goodman, who is White, plans to vote for Trump. While Goodman did not believe Haley needed to say slavery caused the Civil War, she said she hopes “it hurts her because she’s running up against our man, Trump.”

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, who previously headed the state’s Democratic Party, was critical of Haley’s comments. “The folks here in South Carolina won’t be shocked Nikki Haley said it,” added Harrison, who is Black. “They’re just shocked everybody else is shocked.”

At the Saturday dinner, the discussion turned at one point to why they were talking about race. Should Republican candidates be asked about Civil War history? Most around the table said they thought the question was a trick, but they acknowledged it was one that Republicans shouldn’t leave unaddressed.

But Battle, a former Air Force chief master sergeant, said that as long as this was the conversation, it hurts the Republican polling leader. “They want to make this election about race,” he said. “It’s easier. It’s a difficult topic because the Republican Party still has a sense of not being bold enough to speak about the policies.”