Haley works to gain support from South Carolina Democrats — but many Black voters aren’t convinced

(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Brian Gray, a black South Carolinian, said he isn’t affiliated with a particular political party, but has tended to vote more blue than red. He has one exception: Nikki Haley.

Gray said he voted for her the two times that she ran to be South Carolina’s governor. And, in early February, Gray said he was considering voting for her again in her quest for the presidency.

“I think she has a better chance of beating Biden than Trump,” Gray told ABC News. “She understands people in South Carolina. I think she’ll understand the people of the nation.”

Three weeks later, however, Gray said he’s not feeling heard by the Republican Party and now he’s not sure who he’ll vote for. He told ABC News he feels let down by the Democratic Party and ignored by Republicans such as Haley and former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination.

“I’m gonna vote in the general election, but I’m uncommitted to who I’m going to vote for,” he said.

Gray owns the popular restaurant Railroad BBQ in Columbia, South Carolina, and although he initially liked Haley for her tax breaks for small businesses, he isn’t impressed with her outreach to the Black community.

Haley is facing an uphill battle in her home state against Trump. In South Carolina, she’s polling 30 points behind the former president, according to 538’s national polling average.

In order to close the wide gap, Haley has encouraged anyone who hasn’t voted in the Democratic primary to vote for her in the Republican primary. This would, of course, include Democrats.

In South Carolina, 60% of the Democratic Party’s registered voters are Black, according to the state’s Democratic Party. As Haley looks to court Democrats, she will need Black voters’ support, too.

According to Gray, Haley’s comments on race make her a “hard sell.”

Haley has claimed America has “never been a racist country.” In New Hampshire, when asked what was the cause of the Civil War, she refused to say it was slavery.

However, while at a Politics and Pints event in Charleston on Feb. 5, she admitted there is an “element of racism” in America.

“There is always an element of racism. Our goal is how do we make it better today than it was yesterday,” she said.

The former governor often touts her response to the 2015 racially motivated mass shooting on nine black Americans at Charleston’s Mother Emanuel AME Church. Five days after the shooting, she demanded the Confederate flag be taken down from the state capitol’s grounds. One month later, it was gone — no small feat for a state like South Carolina that takes pride in its southern identity.

But when she talks about the attacks on the trail, instead of referring to the shooter as racist, she calls him a “hater.”

“We brought down a divisive symbol that had been dividing our state for a long time. I didn’t judge either side,” Haley said Monday on her bus tour. “I didn’t say who was good or who was bad or who was right or who was wrong. Because that’s not what leaders do.”

PrimaryPivot, a SuperPAC focused on weakening Trump by encouraging voters across the political spectrum to vote in the Republican primaries, has been actively campaigning for Haley.

They claim they have participated in “grassroots” efforts with the Black community.

“We have to reach Black voters where we are, and so I’ve done a lot of street canvassing, and spoke at different events that Black voters attend,” Tiffany James, a senior adviser to the group, told ABC News.

Haley hasn’t lost all of her appeal in the Black community. Yvonne Bradley, a Democrat who voted for Biden, told ABC News that although she didn’t vote for Haley when she ran for governor, she did a lot of things “I can live with.”

“She had a few things that I didn’t agree with, but that’s just typical of every candidate. We don’t agree 100%, but a lot of things she did I can live with,” she said.

But many voters tell ABC News that her views on race make it impossible for her to earn their support. Harry and Darlene Preston, a married couple, said they appreciate her presence in the race as it gives voters an alternative from Trump, but said they find her views on race “disturbing.”

“When you don’t see racism as a problem and how people get held back because of their ethnicity — that’s where she misses it,” Harry Preston said.

ABC News’ Mary Alice Parks and Briana Stewart contributed to this report.

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