Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley has made it Twitter official: she's running for president.
Haley, who served as United Nations ambassador during the Trump administration, is the first Republican challenger to jump into the 2024 primary contest alongside former president Donald Trump.
In a slick three-and-a-half-minute video posted on social media, Haley didn't mention her former boss by name but called for a "new generation of leadership".
"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."
A spokesperson for the Trump campaign responded to the announcement, which dropped a day earlier than Haley had previously teased, in a statement, labelling Haley a "Never Trumper".
"Sure just looks like more of the same, a career politician whose only fulfilled commitment is to herself," the spokesperson said.
Trump, who is 76, has yet to respond directly but he has already been scathing of her perceived disloyalty.
"Nikki has to follow her heart, not her honor [sic]. She should definitely run!" Trump recently wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, accompanied by a video of Haley promising to back him in 2024.
Since announcing his bid to become the Republican nominee only days after the November midterm elections, Trump has kept a lower profile than during his previous two presidential campaigns.
Amid compounding legal woes, including four major criminal investigations, he is politically wounded, and deep-pocketed donors have been reluctant to throw cash at his campaign.
But it seems unlikely they'll coalesce around Haley.
Right now, Trump's biggest rival is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has been coy about his presidential ambitions, or at least about his plans to act on them.
Polls give DeSantis an edge over other potential contenders for the Republican nomination, but a crowded primary field could split the 'anti-Trump' vote, effectively knocking the governor out of the race.
As for Haley, many observers have been quick to downplay her chances, but some say she has one thing DeSantis and others don't: insight into the inner workings of the Trump administration.
And it could give her an unexpected X-factor.
Who is Nikki Haley?
Nikki Haley wasn't an obvious candidate for political office in South Carolina, a southern state where elections are often decided by white and Christian voters.
Born Nimrata Nikki Ranhawa to immigrant Indian Sikh parents, Haley's announcement referenced her childhood in a segregated small town, before claiming some on the left have tried to paint the US as a racist country.
"I was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants," she said.
"Not black, not white — I was different. But my mum would always say, 'Your job is not to focus on the differences, but the similarities'."
In the background of the video, a sign bearing the slogan "Racism is a pandemic", footage of progressive Democrat congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez making a speech, and a burning American flag flash on screen.
Haley's early career was spent working in her family's clothing boutique as a bookkeeper.
Her political breakthrough came in 2004 when she won a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives, campaigning as a conservative reformer.
There, she built her brand over a few terms before setting her sights on a larger prize, campaigning in 2010 to become governor.
Her election pitch hit all the major conservative talking points: lower taxes, less regulation for businesses, and education reform.
But her support wasn't purely partisan, and she successfully garnered votes from Democrats and independents.
At 38, Haley became the first woman of colour elected governor of any state in US history and the youngest governor in the country.
It wasn't a fluke.
She remained popular throughout her first term and was re-elected in 2014.
Haley's national breakthrough moment came in the aftermath of the mass shooting at a historical black church in Charleston in 2015 by a self-avowed white supremacist.
She responded by backing a movement to remove the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds — a politically bold move in a state where the offensive flag remained a popular symbol for many on the right.
Whether she sensed a mood shift among her constituents or helped to lead one, Haley oversaw the removal of the symbol of secession.
She left office with her high approval ratings intact and her successes did not go unnoticed, landing her on Time magazine's list of 100 most influential people in 2016.
How Haley went from Trump backer to challenger
Nikki Haley's rising star meant her endorsement became a valuable commodity for those seeking the Republican nomination for president that year.
She first gave it to Florida Senator Marc Rubio, then, when he was knocked out of the race, she bestowed it on Texas's Ted Cruz.
Far from backing candidate Donald Trump, Haley called on the New York real estate mogul to release his tax returns, then attacked him for not taking a harder line on racism.
"I will not stop until we fight a man that chooses not to disavow the KKK," she said.
"That is not a part of our party. That's not who we want as president."
But, when Trump became her party's nominee, Haley made an about-turn, backing him over Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, then working her way into his inner circle.
Soon after winning the White House, Trump nominated Haley for the position of ambassador to the UN — making her the first American of Indian descent to reach a cabinet-level position.
Again proving her cross-party appeal, Haley was almost universally backed by the Senate and took up her position in 2017.
During the Trump years, Haley proved she was one of few in the administration willing to break with her party's orthodoxy, cementing her moderate brand and becoming the rarest of things: a broadly popular Trump official.
As ambassador, she rejected Russia's continued occupation of Crimea and spoke out against the torture of homosexuals in Chechnya.
When Haley resigned her post in 2018, she did so on good terms with the then-president, with some Republican operatives urging her to consider a tilt at the top job in 2020.
But there was no chance she'd challenge an incumbent.
In 2021, in the wake of the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol, like many non-MAGA Republicans, Haley initially disavowed Trump, then wavered shortly afterwards.
Asked by a reporter if she would run for president against Trump in 2024, she initially said no — a statement the former president seized on, sharing the video on Truth Social when Haley teased her campaign announcement.
Could Haley win the Republican nomination?
Republican strategist John Feehery says he was initially surprised when he heard Nikki Haley was planning to challenge Donald Trump.
"She doesn't have that dramatic of a national profile," he said.
"But then I thought … she's a woman. She's an immigrant. She's a person of colour. She has governor experience. She has that UN experience. And she knows how to run and win campaigns. So, from [that] perspective, she's a great candidate."
The question, Mr Feehery argues, is whether the Republican Party is ready for the "generational change" Haley, at 51, says she hopes to represent.
"The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again," she said in her announcement video, after referencing her party's inability to win the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections.
"It's time for a new generation of leadership."
Mr Feehery applauded Haley's "audacity" for being the first to formally declare she's taking on Trump, saying it will allow her to define the terms of her campaign.
"She gets to define herself," he said.
"She gets to show herself as a courageous figure who's willing to take on President Trump."
But Trump, who's never shied away from getting personal and petty with other Republicans he perceives to be threats, is unlikely to take the challenge lying down.
"She's going to get a lot of slings and arrows from President Trump," Mr Feehery said.
When vying for his party's 2016 nomination, Trump insulted Ted Cruz's wife, described Jeb Bush as "low energy" and labelled Marco Rubio "a lightweight".
Since announcing his 2024 candidacy, Trump has already gone after Ron DeSantis, bestowing the moniker Ron "DeSanctimonious".
Mr Feehery said campaigning against Trump was likely to get messy, regardless of the candidate.
"If you get in the pigsty with a pig, you're gonna get dirty," he said.
Despite her impressive credentials and bipartisan appeal, Haley has muddied her message over the years by swinging between more moderate political tendencies and loyalty to the former president.
Mr Feehery said most voters don't know what she stands for and that she could be charged with being "philosophically ambiguous".
But Haley has proven she can win elections, particularly in South Carolina, an early-voting state.
Winning the primary election there could give her crucial momentum going into the rest of the race.
But she may have to share her home advantage with another South Carolinian, Senator Tim Scott, who is also expected to announce his candidacy.
If Haley flounders, it could sink her campaign.
"The Republican Party tends to be older, whiter and more male," Mr Feehery said.
"The question is, can she appeal to those older white men in a way that gets her a significant amount of vote and, at the same time, attract new voters into the Republican Party?
"That's going to be the big challenge that she has."
What happens if Haley splits the primary vote?
A recent Yahoo News/YouGov poll found that in a head-to-head contest, more Republican voters (roughly 45 per cent) would back Florida Governor Ron DeSantis over Donald Trump's 41 per cent.
But when Nikki Haley is added to the mix, Trump comes out on top.
American politics is often a winner-takes-all proposition, rather than elections relying on preferential voting.
Trump may have led his party through two disappointing midterms and lost the White House, but Mr Feehery believes the former president retains his lock on the Republican base.
For someone to beat him, the 'anti-Trump' vote can't be fragmented among multiple candidates.
Mr Feehery says the deck is currently stacked in Trump's favour, making him the "odds-on favourite to get the nomination", suggesting a process that "sheds unnecessary candidates" before the primary elections even start.
But gaining the nomination is a very different task from winning the general election, and a more moderate candidate like Haley would likely be more successful in courting support from across the aisle.
In South Carolina's capital Charleston, which swings more left than the right-leaning state, residents welcomed her announcement.
"I'm very happy about it," one woman said.
"I think she has been a great governor for South Carolina in the past. She has very good judgement and she's very impartial. And she's very honest."
A man, who described himself as liberal, said Haley would be one of the "better options on the ballot" and that she had proved herself a "capable" leader.
"I think people found her very relatable and very personable," he said.
"She's not tried to be a firebrand … I think she was a very palatable choice for people not trying to go too far left or too far right."
Calls for 'generational change'
The 2024 election is still a long way off.
Donald Trump declared his candidacy extraordinarily early compared with what others have done in the past.
Some argue he did so to add a layer of political protection against the myriad legal issues he's facing, but he may have also hoped to scare off potential challengers.
Haley is likely to be the first of many to announce their candidacies in coming months.
DeSantis remains early the favourite, but former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, former national security adviser John Bolton and former vice-president Mike Pence are also expected to make their moves.
One of Trump's fiercest critics, former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney, is also a likely candidate.
As for the Democratic Party, President Joe Biden has flagged his intention to run again and is expected to make it official in the next couple of months.
Now 80 years old, he'll be asking the country to re-elect him knowing he'll be 86 by the end of his second term.
Some Democrats fear he may not have the stamina for another gruelling election campaign, and have made their own calls for a generational shift.
Polls suggest most voters don't want a rehash of the 2020 election, showing little enthusiasm for the hypothetical Trump-Biden rematch.
But if Biden isn't ready to pass the baton, it's unlikely he'll be challenged by Democrats, who won't risk losing the White House.
In the end, Mr Feehery says, it will be voters who decide what the future of American politics looks like.
"I think there is a thirst for generational change," Mr Feehery said.
"But all these new candidates need to make that case to the voters."
