Nikki Haley's 'happy family' TV ad

last updated 8 January 2015

Amid damaging allegations of an extramarital affair, Nikki Haley, the Tea Party pick in South Carolina's GOP gubernatorial primary, has released a new ad prominently featuring her husband. The TV spot makes an oblique reference to the scandal by noting "the dark side of our state's politics," before showing footage of Haley and her family strolling on the beach. It's "the equivalent of trotting out the candidate’s spouse at a post-scandal press conference in a show of solidarity between the married couple," says David Weigel at The Washington Post. But "there is no real scandal at this point; the allegations have yet to be proven." Still, Haley knows she "can't just stick [her] head in the sand and hide," says Liza Jones, a PR executive quoted in WYFF4.com. The only way to deal with this scandal is "address it head on." Ironically, Haley now has even more rumors to address — hours after the ad premiered, allegations of a second affair emerged, this time with a prominent lobbyist. She says both claims are false. Watch the ad here: