The former South Carolina governor’s home state was the first to secede. This could be an easy question to answer in light of the leadership of the Republican Party in ending slavery, ensuring voting rights, and building a multiracial democracy in the South. 

I wanted to provide a shorter excerpt but found it difficult to do so.  

From Politico:

Nikki Haley declined to say that slavery was a cause of the Civil War on Wednesday evening, placing the blame, instead, on the role of government. . . .

“I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run . . . . The freedoms and what people could and couldn’t do. . . I think it always comes down to the role of government and what the rights of the people are . . . And I will always stand by the fact that I think government was intended to secure the rights and freedoms of the people. It was never meant to be all things to all people. Government doesn’t need to tell you how to live your life. They don’t need to tell you what you can and can’t do. They don’t need to be a part of your life. They need to make sure that you have freedom. We need to have capitalism. We need to have economic freedom. We need to make sure that we do all things so that individuals have the liberties so that they can have freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to do or be anything they want to be without government getting in the way.”