Madison, Wis. — Four days before the state’s recall election, Governor Scott Walker campaigned with Governor Nikki Haley of South Carolina, a fiery first-termer who has battled the National Labor Relations Board. The pair rallied workers at Quad Graphics, a printing plant in southeastern Wisconsin.

Haley, standing on the factory floor, praised Walker’s “courage” for taking on the public-sector unions “even when it got ugly.”

Later Friday, in an interview with National Review Online, Haley emphasized the national importance of Walker’s race. If Walker loses, she says, it’ll be a blow to Republican governors across the country who are attempting to solve similar fiscal problems. “If he doesn’t win, my fear is that it’ll remove the spines of a lot of governors,” she says. “If he wins, it’ll help keep them strong.”

As President Obama promotes an anti-business agenda, Haley says, Republican governors need to defend companies from Big Labor. “We’ve seen the chaos that’s happening in Washington,” she says. “We know that it’s up to us to make a difference in terms of being pro-business, protecting the rights of our employees, and telling the unions that we don’t need them and we don’t want them. When they start to bully our states, our people, and our businesses, we’re going to fight back.”