Nikki Haley invites Disney World to South Carolina amid company’s feud with DeSantis

By Ryan Foley, Christian Post Reporter Friday, April 28, 2023

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor, has invited Walt Disney World to relocate to her state as the company continues to feud with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a potential 2024 hopeful. 

Appearing on Fox News Wednesday, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations reacted to the news that Disney is suing DeSantis over what the corporation described as a "relentless campaign to weaponize government power over the company."

While Disney is based in California, it operates the Walt Disney World theme park in Central Florida, which serves as a significant tourist attraction and one of the largest sources of employment in the Sunshine State.

Get Our Latest News for FREE

Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.

Subscribe

Haley, a 51-year-old who launched her 2024 presidential campaign in February, said that as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017, she "took a double-digit unemployment state, and I turned it into an economic powerhouse."

"Businesses were my partners," she added. "If you take care of your businesses, you take care of your economy, your economy takes care of the people, and everyone wins," she said. 

Characterizing South Carolina as a "very anti-woke state," she contends that "if Disney would like to move their hundreds of thousands of jobs to South Carolina and bring the billions of dollars with them, I'll let them know I'll be happy to meet them in South Carolina and introduce them to the governor and the legislature that would welcome it."

Haley doubled down on her offer in a tweet, reiterating that her state would "happily accept your 70,000+ jobs if you want to leave Florida."

"We've got great weather, great people, and it's always a great day in South Carolina!" she wrote. 

Hey @Disney, my home state will happily accept your 70,000+ jobs if you want to leave Florida.

We’ve got great weather, great people, and it’s always a great day in South Carolina!

SC’s not woke, but we’re not sanctimonious about it either. pic.twitter.com/uf1PWQjGc5

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) April 26, 2023

"SC's not woke, but we're not sanctimonious about it either," she concluded.

Her "sanctimonious" comment could be viewed as a subtle dig at DeSantis, who has emerged as a favorite of many conservatives as a potential contender in the 2024 race. Last November, former President Donald Trump, who has developed nicknames for many of his political rivals, called DeSantis "Ron De-Sanctimonious."

DeSantis, 44, has been an outspoken critic of Disney's political activism following his approval of a Parental Rights in Education bill preventing school officials from discussing matters related to sexual orientation and gender identity with students in kindergarten through third grade.

After initially declining to take a position on the legislation, Disney hosted an "all-hands" meeting following pushback from LGBT activists and released a statement vowing to combat the passage of similar legislation in other states.

Shortly after Disney came out against the Parental Rights in Education bill, the Republican-controlled Florida legislature approved a measure declaring that "[a]ny independent special district established by a special act prior to the date of the ratification of the Florida Constitution on November 5, 1968, and which was not re-established, re-ratified, or otherwise reconstituted by a special act or general law after November 5, 1968, is dissolved effective June 1, 2023."

Although the bill did not mention it by name, the Reedy Creek Improvement District containing the Walt Disney World theme park was absolved by the bill. The district had the authority of a governing body and gave Disney special taxing privileges for the thousands of acres of land that Walt Disney World Resort sits on.

At the time of the legislation's passage, Florida Republican state Rep. Spencer Roach slammed the Reedy Creek Improvement District as an "aberration of the free market" and rejected the idea that the push to abolish it is "retaliatory," an assertion that looms large in Disney's lawsuit against DeSantis.

"They are their own government," Roach noted. "They're exempt from all county regulation and most state regulations. Legally under the law, Disney could build a nuclear power plant there and we couldn't do a darn thing about it."

Roach said that other theme parks in Florida, including Universal Studios and Busch Gardens, do not enjoy the same privileges Disney has.

Disney's lawsuit against DeSantis and other Florida officials, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida Wednesday, outlines additional actions taken by DeSantis and the Florida legislature it viewed as retaliatory measures violating the company's First Amendment rights.

It specifically singled out House Bill 9B, which replaced the Reedy Creek Improvement District with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District.

As detailed in the lawsuit, the second piece of legislation enables the special independent district to remain intact but replaces the existing board of supervisors with "a board handpicked by the Governor, subject to confirmation by the Florida Senate." The Central Florida Tourism Oversight District issued a legislative declaration Wednesday determining that Disney's contracts are "void and unenforceable."

The complaint asks a federal judge to declare the legislative declaration and the legislation abolishing special districts and replacing the Reedy Creek Improvement District with the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District unconstitutional.

It claims the state's actions as violations of the company's property rights as well as the Due Process Clause and the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The lawsuit also asks the judge to issue an order preventing the state from enforcing the two laws and seeks an award of attorney's fees.

Haley's invitation to Disney to abandon Florida in favor of South Carolina comes as DeSantis is widely expected to enter the contest for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

According to the RealClearPolitics average of polls measuring Republican voters' support for declared and potential candidates taken between April 11 and 25, Haley comes in fourth place, capturing 3.9% support.

At 23%, DeSantis secures the second-highest level of support among the candidates listed on the RealClearPolitics average. Both DeSantis and Haley remain far behind the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, Trump, whom 51.3% of Republican primary voters support.