Between Trump and DeSantis, Nikki Haley sees an opening

Nikki Haley is speaking to some three dozen voters, mostly women, over pizza and sodas at an Italian restaurant in Denison, Iowa. Toward the end of her 20-minute stump speech, the former ambassador to the United Nations offers a critique of former President Donald Trump, albeit in diplomatically careful language.

“We have to leave the drama and the baggage of the past,” says Ms. Haley. “Don’t elect someone who is going to win a primary and not win a general. You know what I’m talking about.”

Since launching her presidential bid in February, Ms. Haley has avoided attacking her former boss by name, instead making veiled comments about electability and the need for “a new generation” of leaders. Like every other Republican White House hopeful not named Trump, she’s attempting a difficult – some would say impossible – balancing act: Trying to persuade wavering Trump supporters that they ought to go with someone else, without provoking the ire of the former president’s die-hard fans, while simultaneously cultivating the Trump haters who are looking for