STAMFORD – Republican Nikki Haley barnstormed through Connecticut on Wednesday, raising money for her presidential campaign and spreading the party message of lower taxes, tighter spending and conservative cultural ideals.

Haley fired up the sellout crowd as the keynote speaker at the 44th annual Prescott Bush Awards Dinner, the year’s biggest fundraiser for the state Republican Party. She generated one of the largest crowds and the most attention in years as 550 diners filled a Stamford hotel ballroom and caused organizers to arrange an overflow room.

“Who knew Connecticut had this many Republicans?” Haley said in her opening remarks to the packed ballroom. “It’s pretty impressive. … They told me this was going to be a rowdy crowd. You guys aren’t going to be rowdy, are you?”

The event reenergized the GOP after the 2022 elections showed them losing across the board in a blue state where Democrats control the governor’s office, both chambers of the legislature, all constitutional offices like state attorney general, and the state’s entire Congressional delegation in Washington, D.C.

“It is time for a new generational leader,” Haley said. “We’ve got to start winning general elections again.”

Haley, the former South Carolina governor, barnstormed in a whirlwind visit with four events in 24 hours. That included a reception in Madison on Tuesday night before breakfast in Fairfield, lunch in Darien, and then the Bush dinner in Stamford.

Before she spoke, Haley showed a video clip where she declared that America should be “strong and proud – not weak and woke.”

In a wide-ranging speech that lasted about 30 minutes and was often interrupted by applause, she decried fentanyl coming into the country and the Chinese spy balloon flying across America.

“Don’t think for a second that China doesn’t know what they’re doing,” Haley told the crowd. “They know exactly what they’re doing.”

She then waded into the culture wars, saying she would defund sanctuary cities and change “catch and release to catch and deport.”

“We have biological boys playing in girl’s sports,” Haley said. “It is the women’s issue of our time. Where is everybody? My daughter ran track in high school. I don’t even know how I would have that conversation with her. How do we go tell our girls that they should be comfortable with a biological boy in their locker room? You can’t. Yet, everybody wants to know why a third of our teenage girls last year seriously contemplated suicide. What are we doing? We’re supposed to be growing strong girls.”

As President, she said she would start moving ahead in the same way as she did in South Carolina.

“No more whining. No more complaining. Now we get to work,” Haley told the crowd. “Cut off the credit cards. Stop the borrowing. This debt ceiling agreement? They’re going to add $4 trillion in two years. That’s not a deal.”

America will become energy independent with a stronger military that will prevent wars, she said. In addition, foreign aid should be cut off from Cuba and other “countries that hate America,” she said.

“Quit trying to buy friends,” she said. “Quit trying to pay off enemies.”

An earlier, simpler time

Growing up as an Indian-American in a small southern town, Haley said, “We weren’t white enough to be white, and we weren’t black enough to be black. They didn’t know who we were, what we were or why we were there. … America is not racist. We’re blessed.”

Haley asked the crowd of adults to think about their childhood when times were simpler.

“It was about faith, family, and country,” she said. “Don’t you want that again? Because we could have that again. Don’t think we’ve lost that. We haven’t lost it. But to get it back, it’s going to take a lot of courage from everyone in this room. … We could do this. We could fix it.”

Haley is keenly aware that she is far behind in the polls, consistently showing in the single digits and often as much as 40 to 50 points below Trump.

“The polls you see today are not the polls you are going to see a year from now,” she said. “I have been underestimated at everything I have ever done, and it’s a blessing because it keeps me scrappy.”

As governor, Haley said she turned the state around.

“We were building more BMWs than anyplace else in the world,” she said.

When Trump asked her to become the U.N. ambassador, she accepted without knowing all the details.

“I don’t even know what the United Nations does,” she said. “I just know everybody hates it.”

Possible vice president 

Even while Haley campaigns for president, some in the crowd and beyond say that she could likely end up on a ticket with former President Donald Trump, who appointed her as Ambassador to the United Nations.

“Everybody is getting ahead of themselves,” state party chairman Ben Proto said during the cocktail hour. “She was just asked that. She said, ‘I’m not running for number 2. I’m running to win.”

But former gubernatorial candidate Joe Visconti, a hard-core Trump supporter, said Trump’s lack of criticism of Haley is an important sign.

“She doesn’t have a chance for president, but she has a lot of class,” Visconti said. “I think she’d be a good vice president. I’m very hard-core, but I’m practical. She’s not hitting him, and he’s not hitting her. … I think that is going to be the pick, even though that’s not what the base wants now. The base doesn’t want her.”

Before the dinner, Haley held a fundraising luncheon in Darien for her campaign with party loyalists that included former Darien first selectwoman Jayme Stevenson and former Rep. Terrie Woods, who ran for state treasurer in 2022. Couples paid $5,000 for a VIP roundtable and photo with Haley, while individuals paid $2,500. The  general reception cost $500 per person, according to an invitation obtained by The Courant.

Looking ahead

With the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary still months away, Haley has entered a growing field of both announced and unannounced aspirants who have been jockeying for position for a potential battle against President Joe Biden. Besides declared candidates like Haley, Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, two additional candidates are expected to announce they are joining the race next week : former Vice President Mike Pence and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Other possibilities are New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, among others.

Despite widespread controversy among the general public and outright antagonism among liberals, Trump remains a popular and charismatic figure among some Republicans. His endorsement of Greenwich fundraiser Leora Levy almost singlehandedly boosted Levy from a low-name-recognition insider to an upset victory over well-known former legislator Themis Klarides in last year’s U.S. Senate primary.

With Trump’s appeal for some Republicans, Proto says he would not underestimate the candidate in 2024.

Despite multiple criminal investigations and widespread criticism for failing to take immediate action to stop the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection, Republicans say that Trump still retains support among his passionate base.

Don Lemon and past prime

Haley was thrust into the national news this year when CNN host Don Lemon declared on live television that Haley was past her prime at the age of 51 by saying that “a woman is considered to be in her prime — in her 20s, 30s and maybe her 40s.” The controversial comment drew outrage from Lemon’s female co-hosts, along with others around the nation. Lemon was later fired by the network.

For Haley, it generated massive national publicity that boosted her name recognition at the same time that she was announcing her candidacy. The comment might have been overlooked in the news if made by a small-town anchor at a local station, but it went viral when delivered by one of the best-known anchors nationally.

Capitalizing on the publicity, Haley’s campaign has been selling merchandise that asks “Past my prime?”

On the issues, Haley, as governor, sought the removal of the Confederate flag at the state Capitol and signed a bill in 2015 that ordered its removal. She supports restricting abortion rights and characterizes herself as pro-life. She is a tax-cutter who voted against a surtax on cigarettes when serving as a legislator.

Prescott Bush history

Wednesday’s speech by a presidential candidate came in the long tradition of the Prescott Bush Awards – a marquee event that through the years has attracted major national figures like John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, Bob Dole, and Jack Kemp.

In recent years, however, attendance has lagged at times as the party lined up second-tier speakers without the marquee name recognition. In 2021, the keynote address by first-term U.S. Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana was closed to the press — breaking a decades-long tradition of press access for major national figures who often answered questions from reporters before the event.

The most recent appearance in 2022 by U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, the junior senator from Iowa, attracted about 375 donors, which was small when compared to the more than 800 who heard presidential adviser Karl Rove in 2002 and about 1,000 people in 2000 for McCain. Traditionally, Republicans looked forward to red-meat speeches by national firebrands like Jack Kemp and the late Lee Atwater, who was widely credited with helping George H.W. Bush get elected as president in 1988.

Among the award winners Wednesday night was Sue Hatfield, the former state party chairwoman who served years ago as a legal policy assistant to then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich and became a major volunteer for the Trump campaign in 2016. She won the Pat Futtner Award that is informally known as the Connecticut Republican M.V.P. award.

An accomplished basketball player who broke records for three-point shots, she later ran unsuccessfully for state attorney general despite winning 115 of the state’s 169 municipalities.

“There’s no doubt that I share this award with all of you here tonight,” Hatfield said to party volunteers. “Abraham Lincoln did not let losing eight elections stand in his way of winning the presidency. … Yeah, we hear all the time that Connecticut is a blue state. … Connecticut Republicans will flip our state, too.”

Christopher Keating can be reached at ckeating@courant.com