Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Getty
When Nikki Haley walked inside the South Carolina state house last January, she found a revolt brewing in the halls.
As she prepared to launch her presidential bid, Haley visited the newly elected freshman class of GOP state lawmakers at the South Carolina capitol.
In her rise from backbencher to two-term governor, Haley built her reputation on picking carefully calculated battles with the state Republican Party’s old guard. Taking on those battles is one of the reasons she turned into a GOP rising star in the pre-Trump era.