Nikki Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and United Nations ambassador, announced Tuesday she was entering the 2024 presidential race, making her the primary Republican to challenge her former boss and ex-President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.
Haley, 51, dug into the difference in ages between 80-year-old President Joe Biden and her challenger Trump, who’s 76. While Biden hasn’t formally announced his candidacy, he’s expected to accomplish that in the approaching weeks.
“Republicans have lost the favored vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. That has to vary,” Haley said in a video posted to her Twitter account. She called for a recent generation of leaders, saying Biden’s record was “abysmal” and that the “Washington establishment has failed us again and again and once again.”
In announcing her run a day before she’s scheduled a proper campaign launch in Charleston, S.C., Haley called for fiscal responsibility and secured borders.
Haley has been assembling a team to explore a possible run for weeks, despite previous claims that she would not run if Trump decided to launch his third campaign for the White House.
She enters the race trailing Trump and other would-be challengers in public polls.
A Morning Seek the advice of poll on Tuesday, for example, shows Trump backed by 47% of Republican primary voters, while just 3% of respondents said they might pick Haley. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who’s widely expected to enter the race, has 31% of the GOP support while Trump’s former Vice President Mike Pence, who’s likewise hinted at a possible run, has 7% of the vote.
One in all Trump’s staunchest Republican opponents within the U.S. House, former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is neck-and-neck with Haley at 3% of the vote. None of those potential challenges have formally announced a run.
Born and raised in South Carolina, Haley noted how her Indian parents made her “different” from most other Americans, which forced her to search for similarities with other people as a substitute. She acknowledged the deep political divide in addition to the racial and socio-economic tensions within the nation at once, saying she’s seen and heard of atrocities overseas that underscore the freedoms Americans enjoy.
“I’ve seen evil,” she said. In China, the leaders are committing genocide while the Iranian government murders individuals who challenge its policies, she said. “Even on our worst day, we’re blessed to live in America,” she said.
The political rancor within the U.S. is seen as a vulnerability by many at home and abroad, she said.
“The socialist left sees a possibility to rewrite history. China and Russia are on the march. All of them think we may be bullied, kicked around,” she said. “You need to know this about me, I do not put up with bullies and if you relax, it hurts them more for those who’re wearing heels.”
Haley’s widely anticipated announcement makes her just the second candidate in what’s prone to turn out to be a large Republican primary field. Other GOP names getting presidential buzz include DeSantis, Pence, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas.
But for now, Haley is Trump’s sole rival, putting her in a potentially awkward spot as she has shifted her attitude toward with the previous president within the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by a mob of his supporters.
The riot, which was fueled by false claims of election fraud Trump had trumpeted, disrupted the transfer of power to Biden. Not long after the attack, Haley said she was “disgusted” by what Trump had done.
But like other Republicans, she reverted to a more positive view of Trump, who stays highly popular with a big chunk of the GOP base.