Mrs. Haley’s half-hour meeting with the Palmetto Patriots illustrated how she has sought to assure potential skeptics while also embracing her ethnicity.

She pledged to retain a political compromise that gave the Confederate flag a place of prominence in front of the State House, a position that puts her within the mainstream among GOP leaders in the state. Further, Mrs. Haley noted that “as a minority female” she was ideally suited to counteract an ongoing boycott led by civil rights groups.

Mrs. Haley chose her words carefully in talking about the causes of the Civil War.

“You had one side of the Civil War that was fighting for tradition, and I think you had another side of the Civil War that was fighting for change,” she said. She did not use the word “slavery” but hinted at it, saying that “everyone is supposed to be free.”