How do Nikki Haley, Tim Scott compare on hot-button GOP issues? A look at where the candidates stand

As a pair of generally friendly foes in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, South Carolina’s Nikki Haley and Tim Scott share a great deal of similarities — both minorities with a South Carolina political pedigree whose paths have been inextricably intertwined over the last decade.

Haley, the state’s former governor, appointed Scott to the U.S. Senate, after all.

Both polling with around 3% of support among potential GOP primary voters, neither Scott nor Haley have targeted one another in their campaigns thus far. Both are pro-life. Both are pro-Ukraine. Both are supporters of parental rights in education. And both really, really don’t like President Joe Biden.

The real question is — how are they different?

Occasionally referenced as South Carolina’s brother and sister, the sibling pair now facing off for the 2024 presidential race do have differences. Their stances are becoming sharper as the first Republican debate draws near this month, allowing the two to zero in on what they would do as president.

The State compiled a list of some of the biggest 2024 topics and specifically looked at where Haley and Scott differentiated. Here’s what we found.

Abortion

Both Haley and Scott have been adamant that they are “100%” and “unapologetically” pro-life.

But they do differ when it gets down to specifics on abortion restrictions. They — like other GOP contenders including Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis — also have both refrained from answering some central policy specifics, including whether they would implement a six-week ban on abortions.

Haley has said she doesn’t believe a federal abortion ban is realistic. However, she does say there should be some sort of federal legislation, specifically, on elements where there is some national consensus.

For instance, her campaign team said she would like a potential federal law to offer more information and support to pregnant women, make adoption easier, protect the rights of conscience for doctors and nurses, ban late-term abortion and not punish women who get abortions.

Haley has said she will find consensus on abortion if elected and go from that point.

As South Carolina’s governor, Haley signed into law a ban on abortions at 19 weeks, with no exceptions.

When asked whether she would support a federal a six-week ban on abortion, Haley’s team did not respond. The team also did not respond to a question about exceptions. In response to both, they pointed to a quote from her Iowa town hall speech in late April:

“No one talks about finding consensus,” Haley said then. “Everyone goes to the barricades and attacks the other side. They’ve turned a sensitive issue that has long divided people into a kind of gotcha bidding war. How many weeks are you for? How many exceptions are you for? And so on. But these questions miss the point if the goal is saving as many lives as possible.”

Scott has said he would start the conversation with a 15-week abortion ban if elected president and then try his best to “win the hearts and minds of the American people to get it any, any more conservative.”

“I say that to say this, because I think it’s really important to be honest today, as the guy who sponsored the 20-week bill. No chance of getting that through Congress,” Scott said during an Iowa town hall. “Because today’s Congress is not interested in how conservative you can be. Today’s Congress is interested in how late-term the abortion can be. That’s why the Democrats in the body today voted for abortions up until the day of delivery.”

Scott also said he would create a federal limit where late-term abortions are impossible in the country.

Unlike Haley, Scott has said he supports exceptions for rape, incest, and the life of the mother.

China

In her campaign, Haley frequently invokes China and proposed economic and domestic policies aimed at minimizing what she says are threats from China.

Arguably, she’s talked about China’s influence more than any other GOP candidate thus far and has touted her time as ambassador to the United Nations under Trump.

Haley’s campaign also recently launched a new initiative highlighting a “Comrade of the Week,” which has featured an image of Joe Biden licking an ice cream cone and insulting his decisions on Chinese influence.

Haley says she would implement policies to prevent China from buying more U.S. land and force it to sell what it already owns; eliminate federal funding for universities that take Chinese money; ban all lobbying from Chinese companies and prevent former members of Congress and military leaders from lobbying on China’s behalf; push Congress to revoke permanent normal trade relations if the flow of fentanyl from China does not end; end the export of sensitive technology to China; and block Chinese purchases of American companies specializing in advanced technology.

Haley also has said she would strengthen military ties to Japan, South Korea, Australia, India and the Philippines and give Taiwan what it needs to defend itself.

Scott has introduced, sponsored and co-sponsored multiple pieces of legislation related to China, including the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, the Know Your App Act and the Taiwan Partnership Act.

But he hasn’t defined what exactly he would do if elected, other than vaguely keep Chinese influence out of America.

“I’ll keep China out of our homeland and out of our data,” Scott said in a campaign ad. “I’ll protect American workers, and I will return our military to the fiercest fighting machine in the world.”

He has also said he will rebuild a military “so lethal and powerful that our adversaries will fear us and our allies will respect us.”

Scott has yet to say whether he would prevent China from buying land or seek any other policies similar to those Haley has proposed.

Ukraine

Both Scott and Haley have been outspoken in their support of Ukraine in the war with Russia, and both have criticized how Biden has handled the situation.

Haley has said Ukraine should be a part of NATO and has said she would aim to help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion.

“A Russian defeat is an enormous loss for China — and a true victory for peace,” Haley tweeted in June.

Haley also said she has no problem with the use of cluster bombs, which are controversial munitions the U.S. has supplied to Ukraine.

“The U.S. has never banned cluster bombs. They have been banned in other countries,” Haley said in a Fox News interview. “America’s cluster bombs are actually safer. Russia is using cluster bombs; why wouldn’t Ukraine use cluster bombs? I have no problem with cluster bombs being sent to Ukraine.”

Scott has said it is in America’s “vital national interest” to degrade the Russian military. He has emphasized the war’s ability to weaken Russia militarily.

Scott has said Ukraine can’t join NATO until after the war is over, but he hasn’t said whether he supports that move. He also hasn’t been as specific about the use of cluster bombs but has addressed his disdain for how Biden has handled them. In July at the Family Leadership Summit hosted by Tucker Carlson, The Hill reported Scott dodged questions surrounding cluster bombs being sent to Ukraine.

“Well, if I was president of the United States, we wouldn’t have to,” Scott said. He was further pressed on the question, and said, “Well I think — they’re there. ... Under my administration, we would have the resources and a defense industrial complex that provides the weapons that we need and our Western allies need, we wouldn’t be in this position at all.”

TikTok

While a number of Republican candidates, including Haley, have been adamant that TikTok has got to go, Scott stands apart.

The senator has said he wouldn’t support his kids using the app, but he also has said he would not ban the app federally. Rather, Scott says he would ban it on governmental devices and leave it up to individuals to decide whether to keep the app on their personal devices.

“I think parents are going to have to make that decision, ultimately (whether children should have access to TikTok),” he told Fox News in March. “I would not allow my kids to have access to TikTok, without any question. I think we should seriously have that conversation in the public forums so parents have all the information about the challenges that are happening, because their kids are on the devices too much, and let them be the final arbiter in that conversation.”

Scott’s “Know your App” bill would require app stores to display the country where apps are developed and owned.

Haley, on the other hand, says she would ban the app altogether. “We’re going to ban TikTok. Ban TikTok everywhere,” Haley said in March.

Education

Parental rights in education has become a central talking point of the 2024 election.

Haley has said Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ Parental Rights in Education bill, dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, didn’t go far enough. The bill signed by DeSantis restricts schools from teaching about sexual orientation and gender issues to students in kindergarten through third grade.

“They’re talking about this bill in Florida, the Don’t Say Gay bill, where gay wasn’t even mentioned, but you know what it did say? It said you cannot talk about any sort of sexual preference or gender pronouns before third grade,” Haley said in June. “I didn’t think that went far enough. . . . We didn’t have sex ed until seventh grade. And even then, you had to have your parent sign a permission slip. And my dad didn’t sign it.”

Scott, however, has said the Florida law is appropriate as is.

He defended Desantis’ efforts recently on “The View,” where he was booed by the audience after he said, “Disney and Ron have been in a combat zone over what I thought is the right issue, which is our young kids and what they are being indoctrinated with.”

Scott also introduced The PROTECT Kids Act, which would restrict federal funding for any elementary or middle school that allows students to change their pronouns, gender markers, or sex-based accommodations (including locker rooms and bathrooms) without the consent of their parents.

Immigration

Haley and Scott have very similar stances and proposals when it comes to immigration.

Both said they do not believe in the separation of families at the southern border. Both said they would recruit more border patrol and ICE workers. Both would bring back the “Remain in Mexico” policy, which was enacted under Trump and ended under Biden. And both would end what Republican critics have labeled as catch and release, a policy under Biden’s administration that releases people who cross the border with alternatives rather than detaining them due to overcrowding in detention facilities. These alternatives to detention facilities included phone monitoring, ankle bracelets or check-ins by immigration officers, according to a Reuters report.

Haley has said she would institute a national E-verify program, which allows employers to confirm the immigration status of their employees using information from federal I-9 forms, similar to what she instituted for businesses as South Carolina governor, her campaign team said. Haley said she would keep Title 42, a code that was used widely in March 2020 to regulate border crossings during COVID-19. Biden had said he would end the program when campaigning but announced a policy in January that would expand it.

Scott has said he would designate cartels as terrorist organizations and sign the bill he wrote, the FEND Off Fentanyl Act. Scott also specified he would hire 1,000 new immigration judges and deploy military-grade technology at the border and ports of entry to stop illegal drugs and human trafficking.

Donald Trump

Over time, Haley has been bolder in her criticism of former President Donald Trump, the consistent frontrunner in the 2024 Republican race, compared to Scott or most other GOP candidates thus far.

But when Trump was indicted on criminal charges last week for the third time this year, this time in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot and efforts to undermine the results of the 2020 election, Scott responded more quickly. His arrows weren’t pointed at Trump, though.

“I remain concerned about the weaponization of Biden’s DOJ and its immense power used against political opponents,” he said via Twitter last Tuesday night, less than four hours after the indictment was released. “What we see today are two different tracks of justice. One for political opponents and another for the son of the current president. We’re watching Biden’s DOJ continue to hunt Republicans, while protecting Democrats.”

Yet, Scott has remained relatively quiet on Trump’s previous indictments — related to alleged financial fraud and the handling of classified documents — and has yet to openly criticize the strongest competitor in the Republican field.

After 37 federal criminal charges were filed against the former president related to the handling of classified documents, Scott said the indictment was a “serious case with serious allegations.” During a Fox News interview, Scott said, “Voters will decide the next president of the United States. That’s the way it should be. You’re innocent until proven guilty.”

Scott also has focused in on the ability to “restore confidence and integrity to the Department of Justice” if he were elected president.

Meanwhile, Haley has openly criticized the former president’s foreign policy, particularly when it comes to relations with China. And she has been somewhat more pointed in recent comments about Trump’s legal woes. In a Fox News interview June 12, Haley said if the classified document charges are true, “President Trump was incredibly reckless with our national security.”

After Trump was charged on 34 felony counts related to alleged financial crimes in New York, Haley tweeted, “This is not how justice should be pursued in our country. The American people are exhausted by the prosecutorial overreach, double standards, and vendetta politics. It’s time to move beyond the endless drama and distractions.”