Democrats are warning their voters against supporting Haley in South Carolina

South Carolina Democrats, who are looking to make a show of force for President Biden during their party's primaries on Saturday, want to remind their voters that Nikki Haley is not the moderate Republican some may think she is.

In recent weeks, party leaders have made Ms. Haley a particular focus at their events across the state, calling her the “mother of the MAGA movement” and surprising attendees with lists of the ultraconservative policies she has pushed in her two terms as governor.

For any Democrat thinking about skipping Saturday's primaries and running in the Republican primary three weeks later, the party's message is very clear: Don't do that.

“I had to sue her to get married,” Colleen Condon, gay and the first non-binary vice chair of South Carolina Democrats, told party members Saturday at the party's First in the Nation dinner. “Don't let your friends vote in those primaries. Please.”

Ms. Haley has shown strength among Democrats and independents in the first two nominating contests in Iowa and New Hampshire. She narrowed the field to a one-on-one race against former President Donald J. Trump after other Republican rivals fell, having failed to win over a base still loyal to him.

In fact, she is the last candidate standing between Trump and the nomination. She faces long odds in her home state, where the Republican electorate is even friendlier to her opponent. To achieve her goal of doing better than her 43 percent in New Hampshire, she will most likely have to expand her coalition or put together a new one.

The Democrats' warning is the latest sign of how the parties' divergent primary dates have thrown politics into disarray in the key early-election state. South Carolina's open primary system allows voters of either party to participate in one of two primaries. Democrats set their primary date for December 2022, while Republicans, looking to focus the nation's attention on their contest after the Nevada caucuses and primaries in early February, set their primary date later in the month.

There is no indication that significant numbers of Democrats have been moved to Ms. Haley's camp yet. Those thinking of supporting Ms. Haley on Feb. 24 say they feel compelled to at least consider doing so because their own primaries are so uncompetitive. (Mr. Biden is running against Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota and Marianne Williamson, a self-help author, two candidates with little presence in the state.) Some said they felt voting for Ms. Haley could help limit what polls show. a yawning chasm in the race between her and Mr. Trump.

Bill Samuels, a 73-year-old retiree in Beaufort, said he and his wife were among the Democratic voters who were considering voting for Ms. Haley in the Republican primary as registered independents.

“I mean, who should Biden be running against?” Mr. Samuels asked as he waited to hear from Democrats in the small salon of Singleton's Barbershop in Beaufort.

Jon Coffey, a Democratic voter sitting next to him, said he too was considering running in the opposing party's primary. “That's a good strategy,” he said.

But he later expressed doubts about an effort to elevate Ms. Haley. “You have to be careful when you start playing with fire in a primary,” Mr. Coffey said. “It could be counterproductive.”

A spokeswoman for Ms. Haley, Olivia Perez-Cubas, said: “Nothing would make Democrats happier than Donald Trump as the Republican nominee.”

Point at national polls who suggest Ms. Haley could beat Mr. Biden in a general election by a larger margin than Mr. Trump, Ms. Perez-Cubas said of the former president, “they know Biden can beat him.”

Ms. Haley's campaign has sought to convey that message to voters eager for an alternative to a general election rematch between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden — but instead of making an open appeal to Democratic voters looking towards moderation, her allies have her reputation as a staunch conservative.

Palmetto State Democratic leaders have sought to portray Ms. Haley as a politician whose national ambitions led her to push for some of the most conservative policies in state history, citing her specifically. signing a twenty-week abortion ban while governor in 2016 and refused to expand Medicaid.

“I think if you stand next to Trump, anyone can look normal. And for me, it's important to remind South Carolina Democrats who Nikki Haley is,” Christale Spanje, chair of the Democratic Party of South Carolina, said in an interview.