Nikki Haley announces presidential campaign, challenging Trump
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, announced her candidacy for president Tuesday, becoming the first major challenger to former President Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination.
The announcement, delivered in a video, marks an about-face for the ex-Trump Cabinet official, who said two years ago that she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House. But she changed her mind in recent months, citing, among other things, the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change,” a nod to the 76-year-old Trump’s age.
“You should know this about me: I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels,” Haley said. “I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president.”
Haley, 51, is the first in a long line of Republicans who are expected to launch 2024 campaigns in the coming months. Among them are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina.
President Biden has said he intends to seek reelection in 2024, stalling any jostling for the Democratic nomination.
Haley has regularly boasted about her track record of defying political expectations, saying, “I’ve never lost an election, and I’m not going to start now.”
As President Biden weighs whether to run for a second term, his team is crafting a strategy for what will be one of the longest presidential campaigns in U.S. history.
If elected, Haley would be the nation’s first female president and the first U.S. president of Indian descent.
The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley grew up enduring racist taunts in a small South Carolina town and has long spoken of the impact of that on her personal and political arc.
In the 3½-minute video, Haley referenced that past, saying she grew up “not Black, not white — I was different.”
Despite that, Haley insisted that America is not a racist country: “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Playing in the background of her video were images of media reports related to the New York Times Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project,” which focused on the history of slavery in the U.S.
Haley never mentions Trump by name in the video, saying instead 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 the refrain of her messaging leading up to the launch.
Former President Trump holds his first rallies of his 2024 White House bid with stops in early-voting states New Hampshire and South Carolina.
She was an accountant when she launched her first bid for public office, defeating the longest serving member of the South Carolina House in 2004. Three terms later and with little statewide recognition, Haley mounted a longshot campaign for governor against a large field of experienced politicians.
She racked up a number of high-profile endorsements, including from then-South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a tea party darling.
With her 2010 victory, Haley became South Carolina’s first female and ethnic minority governor — and the nation’s youngest at 38. She earned a speaking slot at the 2012 Republican National Convention and gave the GOP response to President Obama’s State of the Union address in 2016.
The defining moment of Haley’s time as governor came after the 2015 murders of nine Black parishioners in a Charleston church by a self-avowed white supremacist who had been pictured holding Confederate flags.
For years, Haley had resisted calls to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds, even casting a rival’s push for its removal as a desperate stunt. But after the massacre and with the support of other leading Republicans, Haley advocated for legislation to remove the flag. It came down less than a month after the killings.
In the 2016 Republican presidential primary, Haley was an early supporter of Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, later shifting to Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She ultimately said she would back the party’s nominee.
Shortly after Trump’s victory, he tapped Haley to be his ambassador to the U.N., a move that rewarded Henry McMaster, South Carolina’s lieutenant governor, who was the nation’s first statewide elected official to back Trump’s 2016 campaign. Haley’s departure for the U.N. cleared the way for McMaster to ascend to the governorship he had sought since losing a bruising primary to Haley seven years earlier.
With her Senate confirmation, Haley became the first Indian American in a presidential Cabinet.
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley has resigned from the board of Boeing Co. over her opposition to a coronavirus bailout for the airplane maker.
During her nearly two-year tenure, Haley feuded at times with other administration officials while bolstering her own public persona.
One of her most memorable moments as U.N. ambassador came in 2018 after National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow suggested that Haley had suffered “momentary confusion” when she said Russian sanctions were imminent.
“With all due respect, I don’t get confused,” she responded. The first half of the quote became the title of her 2019 memoir.
Her departure from the job later that year fueled speculation that she would challenge Trump in 2020 or replace Pence on the ticket. She did neither.
A new lineup favoring South Carolina and other states with substantial Black populations could benefit the vice president if Biden chooses not to run again.
Instead, Haley returned to South Carolina, where she bought a home on wealthy Kiawah Island, joined the board of aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co., launched herself on the speaking circuit and wrote two books, including the memoir.
After the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Haley initially cast doubts on Trump’s political future but said she wouldn’t challenge him in 2024. She later shifted course, citing inflation, crime, drugs and a “foreign policy in disarray” among her reasons for considering a White House campaign.
During a visit to South Carolina last month, Trump told WIS-TV that Haley had called to seek his opinion on running for president. Trump pointed out her earlier pledge not to run against him but said he made no attempts to stop her.
“She said she would never run against me because I was the greatest president, but people change their opinions, and they change what’s in their hearts,” Trump said. “So I said, ‘If your heart wants to do it, you have to go do it.’”
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