Nikki Haley is trying to shatter the presidential glass ceiling. She rarely mentions it

Nikki Haley is trying to break the highest glass ceiling in politics, but you won’t hear her say so – at least not directly.

She does, however, offer fleeting glimpses at the historic nature of her Republican presidential campaign.

“There are no saints in DC right now, but that’s why I think you need a badass woman in charge at the White House,” the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador said with a smile in the closing moments of a stop here Wednesday night, answering a voter’s question about criminal charges facing some politicians in Washington.

With the first votes of the Republican presidential primary barely a month away, Haley is drawing larger crowds – and louder applause – from voters like Thalia Floras, who has been eagerly searching for an alternative to former President Donald Trump.

“It would be great to have a female president, but that is not what this is about,” said Floras, a Nashua resident who has surveyed several candidates during their visits to New Hampshire. “I think we’re past the point of talking about that. It’s about the strongest candidate, and she, right now in the Republican Party, is the strongest candidate.”

Of course, not all of Haley’s supporters are women. And not all Republican women are supporting Haley, considering most polls show that Trump still receives a strong majority of support across all demographic groups.

But the makeup of Haley’s crowds is often distinct from those of her rivals, with audiences that include mothers bringing their daughters to see the candidate and older women hoping to see presidential history made in their lifetimes.

Helene Haggar, a retired financial adviser, is blunt about her feeling that it’s beyond time for the United States to elect a woman president.

“It’s time to get the testosterone…