Former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador Nikki Haley announced her presidential candidacy on Tuesday, becoming the first major challenger to former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination in 2024.
The announcement, made in a video tweet, represents a 180-degree turn for the ex-Trump Cabinet official, who said two years ago that she would not run for President in 2024. But she changed her mind in recent months, citing the country’s economic woes and the need for “generational change,” a reference to Trump’s age of 76.
“You should be aware of this fact about me. Bullies are not tolerated by me. “And kicking back hurts them even more if you’re wearing heels,” Haley explained. “Hello, my name is Nikki Haley, and I’m running for President.”
Haley, 51, is the first in a long line of Republicans who are expected to launch presidential campaigns in 2024 in the coming months. Among them are Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.
President Joe Biden has said he intends to seek reelection in 2024, stalling any jostling for the Democratic nomination.
Haley has frequently boasted about defying political expectations, saying, “I’ve never lost an election, and I’m not going to start now.”
If elected, Haley would be the first female president of the United States and the first president of Indian descent.
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, grew up in a small South Carolina town enduring racist taunts and has long acknowledged the impact on her personal and political arc.
Haley mentioned her past in the three-and-a-half-minute video, saying she grew up “not Black, not white — I was different.”
Despite this, Haley maintained that America is not a racist country, saying, “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Images of media reports related to The New York Times Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project,” which centered the country’s history on slavery, played in the background of her video.
In a video, Haley never mentions Trump by name, instead stating that “the Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again.” Haley leans into a call for “a new generation of leadership,” which has become a recurring theme in her pre-launch messaging.
According to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, Republicans appear to be open to new leadership. A majority of Republicans did not choose Trump or DeSantis, the former president’s main rival, in an open-ended question about who they want to lead their party. However, they did not have a clear alternative in mind.
Only 1% of Republicans choose Haley as their preferred leader out of eleven other candidates.
Taylor Budowich, a spokesman for Trump’s super PAC, said in a statement that Haley was “just another career politician.”
“She began as a Never Trumper before resigning to serve in the Trump administration,” he explained. “She then resigned early in order to make money on corporate boards. She now claims to represent a “new generation.” It appears to be more of the same, a career politician whose only fulfilled commitment is to herself.”
Haley worked as an accountant before entering politics. In her first run for public office, she defeated the longest-serving member of the South Carolina House in 2004. Three terms later, and with little statewide recognition, Haley launched a long-shot governor’s campaign against a large field of experienced politicians.
She received a slew of high-profile endorsements, including those from South Carolina’s current governor, Mark Sanford, and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a tea party favorite.
With her election in 2010, Haley became South Carolina’s first female and minority governor, as well as the country’s youngest at 38. She spoke at the Republican National Convention in 2012 and delivered the GOP response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address in 2016.
The 2015 murders of nine Black parishioners in a Charleston church by a self-avowed white supremacist holding Confederate flags became the defining moment of Haley’s governorship.
For years, Haley had resisted calls to remove the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds, even dismissing a rival’s efforts as a desperate ploy. However, following the massacre, and with the backing of other prominent Republicans, Haley advocated for legislation to remove the flag. It was removed less than a month after the killings.
In the 2016 presidential primary, Haley was an early supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, later shifting to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She eventually stated that she would support the party’s nominee.
Shortly after his victory, Trump appointed Haley as his United Nations ambassador, rewarding Henry McMaster, the lieutenant governor who was the nation’s first statewide elected official to support Trump’s 2016 campaign. McMaster was able to ascend to the governorship he had sought since losing a bruising primary to none other than Haley seven years before.
Haley became the first Indian American in a presidential Cabinet after her Senate confirmation.
During her nearly two-year tenure, Haley clashed with other administration officials at times while bolstering her own public image.
One of her most memorable moments as UN ambassador occurred in 2018 when National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow suggested Haley had experienced “momentary confusion” when she stated that Russian sanctions were imminent.
“With all due respect, I’m not confused,” she said. The first half of the quote became the title of her memoir, which was published in 2019.
Her resignation later that year fueled speculation that she would run against Trump in 2020 or replace Pence on the ticket. She didn’t do either.
Instead, Haley returned to South Carolina, where she purchased a home on the wealthy enclave of Kiawah Island, joined the board of aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co., became a public speaker, and wrote two books, including the memoir.
Following the January 6, 2021 insurgency, Haley questioned Trump’s political future but stated that she would not challenge him in 2024. She later changed her mind, citing inflation, crime, drugs, and a “disarrayed foreign policy” as reasons for considering a White House run.
During a stop in South Carolina last month, Trump told WIS-TV that Haley had called to ask for his thoughts on running for president. Trump cited her earlier pledge not to run against him but claimed he made no attempt to prevent her from doing so.
“She said she would never run against me because I was the greatest president, but people change their minds and their hearts,” Trump said. “So I told her, ‘If your heart desires it, you must go do it.'”
