Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley's comments on abortion during the third Republican National Committee debate in Miami didn't just resonate with GOP voters and commentators. It may have proven a way forward on an issue that has continually hampered Republican electoral success since Roe v. Wade was overturned in June 2022.

The latest loss for Republicans came just one day before Wednesday's debate in which Ohio residents voted to enshrine abortion rights into the state constitution, Gov. Andy Beshear (D-KY) won his reelection after attacking Republican Daniel Cameron over his abortion stance, and Virginia voters handed control of the state Assembly to Democrats in a stinging rebuke of Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA), who championed passing a 15-week abortion ban if the GOP controlled both chambers.

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Haley's comments could be a path forward on how the GOP discusses and campaigns on abortion, but it could also come at the expense of evangelical voters, who make up a sizable portion of the conservative base. And while it may point to a future GOP messaging strategy, it may not be enough to defeat former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.

Over the past four months, Haley has consistently polled in either second or third place behind Trump and Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL). A RealClearPolitics poll average showed Trump at 58.5%, DeSantis at 14.4%, and Haley at 9%.

As Haley's campaign has surged in the wake of the first two primary debates, it has mostly threatened DeSantis in the first two early nominating states rather than Trump. DeSantis and Haley tied at 16%, according to a Des Moines Register-NBC News-Mediacom Iowa poll released last month, while Trump received 43% support. A Suffolk University-Boston Globe-USA Today survey last month showed Haley polling above DeSantis at 19% among New Hampshire Republican primary voters, second only to Trump at 49%, while DeSantis polled at 10%.

While Haley's abortion stance could put off evangelical voters in Iowa, New Hampshire voters may be more amendable to her pragmatic approach.

The former South Carolina governor has consistently stated that a federal abortion ban is unrealistic given Democratic control of the Senate and White House. She has instead called for a consensus on abortion which she again reiterated Wednesday night. "As much as I'm pro-life, I don't judge anyone for being pro-choice and I don't want them to judge me for being pro-life," Haley said during the debate. "But when it comes to the federal law, which is what's being debated here, be honest it's going to take 60 Senate votes, a majority of the House, and a president to sign it."

"No Republican president can ban abortions any more than a Democrat president can ban these state laws. So let's find consensus," Haley continued. "Let's agree on how we can ban late-term abortions. Let's make sure we encourage adoptions and good quality adoptions. Let's make sure we make contraception accessible. Let's make sure that none of these state laws put a woman in jail or give her the death penalty for getting an abortion. Let's focus on how to save as many babies as we can and support as many moms as we can and stop the judgment."

As the only woman and mother running for the Republican nomination, Haley brings a personal perspective to the race her 2024 competitors lack. She has pointed to her struggles conceiving her two children and her husband being adopted as part of her anti-abortion stance.

Yet some of her competitors, such as Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), have challenged her to endorse a 15-week abortion ban during the debate, to which Haley retorted, "I would support anything that would pass because that's what would save more babies and support more moms."

DeSantis (R-FL), who has emerged as Haley's chief antagonist, signed into law a six-week abortion ban in April, going further than Haley and Trump on enforcing abortion limits. His effort will likely pay off with evangelicals in Iowa who support abortion restrictions and support the Hawkeye State's own six-week abortion ban, which Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) signed into law in July.

Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, pushed back against Haley's sidestepping questions about how many weeks she supports before a federal ban on abortion is enacted. "I admire her very much and her ability to communicate," Dannenfelser told the Washington Examiner. "But I disagree very much with the idea that you could ignore the consensus of the country and wait for consensus inside the Beltway. And let that prevent you from leading."

In April, Haley had given a major policy speech at the SBA's northern Virginia headquarters, where she first outlined her consensus on abortion ideas as a presidential candidate. Back then, Dannenfelser appeared receptive to Haley's stance on abortion. After the debate, Dannenfelser pointed to Scott's embrace of a 15-week abortion as representative of the anti-abortion community. "Everybody else was terrified of saying what they would sign into law was president," she added. "Desperately trying to avoid expressing how they would lead."

Mary Ziegler, a law professor who studies the politics of reproduction at the University of California, Davis told the Washington Examiner that both Trump and Haley have been deliberately vague on abortion to avoid explaining what actions they would take if elected president. "It's true that Congress isn't going to pass a ban, but that doesn't really speak to what Nikki Haley would do with the power of the executive branch because there's a lot that anti-abortion forces claim you can do as the president without Congress," Ziegler said.

Trump has often bragged about appointing the three Supreme Court justices, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, who helped overturn Roe yet has also refused to embrace a federal abortion ban if he were reelected president, prompting criticism from conservatives — none of which has lessened his perch as GOP presidential front-runner.

Yet the GOP strategy on abortion doesn't appear to have an easy solution moving forward. Amid conversations about federal abortion restrictions have come battles surrounding access to contraceptives, the sale of the abortion pill mifepristone, and the revival of the 1873 Comstock Act, which banned the mailing of contraceptive or abortion-related materials. All of this has soured voters on the anti-abortion community, according to Ziegler.

"When Republicans tried to sound more like Nikki Haley, that's in a way sort of what Glenn Youngkin was trying to get Republicans to do in Virginia that didn't work either," Ziegler said, referencing Tuesday's elections. "Part of the problem with what Nikki Haley is doing that we saw in Virginia is that voters don't necessarily believe [her anti-abortion stance] is sincere, given that there's lots of pro-life activity that contradicts what Haley is saying."

Haley's campaign told the Washington Examiner in a statement that the former South Carolina governor is focused on "being honest" with voters about what realistically can be accomplished on abortion. "Leadership is about bringing out the best in people — that’s what Nikki’s always done," said spokeswoman Olivia Perez-Cubas. "In SC, she proudly signed pro-life legislation. At the federal level, it's about being honest with the American people and finding a consensus in order to save as many babies and support as many moms as possible."

Timothy Head, executive director of the Faith and Freedom Coalition, praised Haley's abortion comments as "effective articulations of how conservative pro-life supporters can think and speak about what usually is a very divisive or kind of combative topic."

However, Head did concede that Haley's consensus-building process may take time to achieve. "I'll admit that the kind of consensus building process one, it requires a lot of patience and also requires a lot of creativity," he said. "And I think that those are two things that politicians are usually not really known for. We at Faith and Freedom Coalition have been heavily engaged on the ground in almost 25 states now, probably 23 states at the moment, to try to help states come up with creative and long-term solutions."

Head also noted that despite Trump's own complicated views on abortion, he still remains ahead with GOP voters. "Republican voters are more than able to kind of walk and chew gum when it comes to Trump and his current positions on abortion partly because he delivered literally more than any other Republicans since the advent of Roe v. Wade on this issue," he said. "He has a ton of kind of credibility among pro-life voters."

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Before Haley can even build consensus on abortion, she'll need to find a credible path to defeating Trump, whose support has only grown throughout the primary. The best chance Haley has is to overtake DeSantis as the top alternative to Trump and consolidate Republicans who want a new standard-bearer. Should she prove successful, Haley would make a formidable foe to President Joe Biden.

A recent New York Times-Siena College poll showed Haley beating Biden in all six battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — that were surveyed, while Trump beats Biden in every battleground except Wisconsin. In a CNN poll this month, Haley beats Biden 49% to 43% in a hypothetical matchup in another sign that Haley could defeat Biden next year.