By John McCormick
Nalin Haley, the 24-year-old son of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, is sounding more MAGA than his mom.
The younger Haley has publicly contradicted several positions central to his mother's 2024 Republican presidential nomination bid, while also aligning himself more closely with the Make America Great Again movement she has sometimes clashed with. He even suggested Vice President JD Vance comes closest to what he is looking for as a future presidential candidate.
Haley isn't the only child to challenge a politician parent's views this year.
Stefany Shaheen, the 51-year-old daughter of Sen. Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, was quick to say last week that her mother was wrong for being part of a group of Democratic senators to cut a deal with Republicans to end the government shutdown without extending healthcare subsidies.
The younger Shaheen is running for Congress and needs to keep the Democratic base happy as she seeks the party's nomination for a seat in a state where her mother is a former governor and now the senior senator.
California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has said his 14-year-old son was so interested in Charlie Kirk, the slain right-wing influencer who mobilized young voters for President Trump, that he asked to attend his father's podcast interview of Kirk earlier this year.
And then there is the Kennedy family spat over Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his role in the Trump administration as Secretary of Health and Human Services. Members of the Democratic political dynasty have suggested RFK Jr. betrayed his father's legacy by backing Trump.
Polling shows young voters as a whole are pessimistic about the nation's direction and skeptical of institutions, while Oxford Economics says unemployment is rising and wage growth is declining for the group. All of that is prompting some clashes with older generations.
Children are more likely to adopt their family's political views when politics are highly important to their parents, according to political scientists who have studied the topic. Some studies have also found partisan orientations flow from parent to child less than half the time.
Christopher Ojeda, an associate professor of political science at University of California, Merced, said social media and the internet play a role in some children moving away from the views of their parents.
"They can no longer gatekeep information in the way they once could," he said. "We are seeing less and less alignment between children and parents these days."
In an email to The Wall Street Journal, Nalin Haley said he is speaking out because he doesn't "feel like anyone is fighting for my generation." He said he is starting a group for young Republicans in northern South Carolina to mobilize them to help conservative candidates and advocate for "Gen Z causes."
The younger Haley, in an interview published Nov. 8 with a British website called UnHerd, said he was mostly trying to be a "good son" as his mother campaigned for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination and was "never going to be an advocate for a view that I did not have."
He overlooked his mother as a possible 2028 presidential candidate when asked who he wants to lead the Republican Party after Trump, expressing support for Vance, but also saying the vice president needs to "somehow work on his charisma, aura and likability."
In his email to The Journal, Nalin Haley said he wasn't necessarily backing Vance for 2028, but mentioned him because he agrees with "many of his policy positions." He added that he supported his mother because he knew she was "in it for the right reasons."
Nikki Haley said she sought to instill independence in her son and his older sister. "Our goal was to teach our children to have a deep faith, a strong work ethic and to think for themselves," she said. "We are proud of the strong, intelligent people Rena and Nalin have become."
Her son frequently accompanied her on the campaign trail, where she was the last major candidate challenging Trump for the GOP nomination before dropping out in March 2024.
The younger Haley in the UnHerd interview called for stopping even legal immigration to the U.S. -- the very pathway that allowed his family to take root in America.
"We don't just stop illegal immigration," he said. "I think we need to stop legal immigration."
Nikki Haley has supported legal, merit-based immigration. She also has been a staunch supporter of Israel, while her son told UnHerd "Israel is just another country" and that it needs to stop "interfering in our politics."
On the campaign trail, Nikki Haley often spoke about the importance of help for Ukraine and its war against Russia. Her son says the U.S. should end all foreign aid "as long as we have unemployment, people below the poverty line, medical debt and bad schools."
In the UnHerd interview, Nalin Haley also expressed deep despair for his generation. "My friend group from high school, all graduated, great degrees from great schools," he said. "It's been a year and a half, and not one of them has a job -- not one."
Nikki Haley has mostly kept a low profile during Trump's second White House tour. She occasionally weighs in on social media with her views, while backing both moderate and conservative Republicans running for office.
Write to John McCormick at mccormick.john@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 20, 2025 12:00 ET (17:00 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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