INDIAN LAND, S.C. — Nikki Haley was polling in the low digits, fighting for oxygen among better-known and better-funded rivals in a contest clouded by scandal and involving the man whose job they all sought. This was 2009, and Haley was the underdog candidate for governor of South Carolina. At the state Republican Party’s convention that year, she was the last contender to speak. Before she took the podium, Katon Dawson, then the state party chair, handed her a rust-coated nail from a jar collec
Still pitching herself as a political outsider, Ms. Haley now has a political résumé that includes a stint in the Trump administration. Then there’s Mr. Trump himself.