Nikki Haley Says Florida’s Parental-Rights Law Doesn’t Go ‘Far Enough’

Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, suggested Thursday that Florida’s Parental Rights in Education law doesn’t go far enough.

“Basically what it said was, you shouldn’t have to talk about gender before third grade,” Haley said during a town-hall-style event in Exeter, N.H., two days after releasing a video announcing her 2024 presidential bid. “I’m sorry, I don’t think that goes far enough. When I was in school you didn’t have sex ed until seventh grade.”

She suggested that decisions about sex education should be left up to parents.

The Florida legislation, which was signed into law by governor Ron DeSantis in March 2022, prohibits instructors from teaching about sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third-grade classrooms

The law was designed to give parents the power to determine when and how their children would learn about sensitive subjects. Aside from banning instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation from elementary school classrooms, it also adds that such instruction may not occur in other grades “that is not age appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”

Opponents of the legislation have called it the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, though the law does not prohibit teachers, administrators, or students from saying the word.

Haley previously suggested the bill didn’t go far enough while speaking at a rally in Georgia last year.

“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.”

Haley’s comments are a challenge from the right against DeSantis, who is widely seen as a top 2024 contender, though he has not formally said whether he plans to run.

A recent poll found Haley running behind both former president Trump and DeSantis, but ahead of a handful of other potential Republican candidates.

In a hypothetical nine-candidate field, Haley notches 5 percent support — up from just 1 percent in January, according to a Yahoo News/YouGov poll conducted February 2–6. In a hypothetical head-to-head against Trump, she loses 54 percent to 27 percent, the poll found.

Forty-eight percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters approve of Haley’s decision to run. Twenty-two percent said they disapprove, while 30 percent said they are unsure.

Republican Don Bolduc, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in New Hampshire last year, spoke at the town-hall event and offered an endorsement of Haley.

“Even if you didn’t support me, I ask you to support her,” said Bolduc, who was endorsed by Trump in the 2022 midterms. “She is everyone’s candidate.”

Haley went on to speak about a number of topics on Thursday, from China, which she called the “No. 1 threat” facing the U.S., to the United States’ “national self-loathing.”

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“America is not a racist country! It’s not!” she said, reiterating a point she made in her campaign kickoff speech Wednesday in Charleston, S.C.

Haley is the first former Trump staffer to enter the race. Others believed to be weighing a run include former vice president Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and former national-security adviser John Bolton.