Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina Governor and Donald Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, announced Tuesday that she’s running for president, casting herself as the Republican leader best positioned to usher in a fresh chapter for the GOP.
“It’s time for a new generation of leadership – to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border, and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose,” Haley said in a video Tuesday announcing her run.
Haley, 51, is the first of several Republicans expected to challenge Trump for the nomination, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, after the former president announced he was running again nearly three months ago.
The former South Carolina governor said in 2021 that she would not run in 2024 if Trump did. But she laid the groundwork for a presidential run last year, including actively campaigning for GOP candidates across the US, and said the disappointing Republican midterm performance altered the landscape.
Haley has said the moment calls for new leadership with the 80-year-old President Joe Biden expected to seek a second term and the 76-year-old Trump trying to return to the White House after losing a reelection bid in 2020 that was capped by his supporters waging a deadly riot on the US Capitol to overturn his defeat.
“Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change,” Haley said in the video.
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was the youngest and first minority female governor in the country when she was elected in South Carolina in 2010. She regularly touts the state’s unemployment rate reaching a 15-year low during her tenure with aggressive economic development.
She was reelected with 56% of the vote in 2014 and tapped by Trump in 2016 to serve as ambassador to the UN before resigning in 2018.
Haley is one of only a handful of women to seek the Republican nomination, according to the Center for American Women and Politics. The most recent were Elizabeth Dole in 2000, Michele Bachmann in 2012 and Carly Fiorina in 2016.
“I’ve won tough primaries and tough general elections,” Haley said in a speech at a Republican Jewish Coalition meeting last November. “I’ve been the underdog every single time. When people underestimate me, it’s always fun. But I’ve never lost an election, and I’m not gonna start now.”
Still, she faces an uphill battle to dethrone her former boss for the Republican mantle. A Jan. 24 Emerson College poll showed Trump with 55% of the vote in a potentially crowded primary field, with DeSantis at 29%, former Vice President Mike Pence at 6% and Haley at 3%.
The Democratic National Committee said that Haley’s announcement started what would be a “messy” primary for Republicans.
“Everyone get your popcorn,” DNC chairman Jaime Harrison, who is also from South Carolina, said in a statement.
Other Republicans considering a White House run include former Secretary of State Michael Pompeo; New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu; ex-Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson; former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan; ex-New Jersey Governor Chris Christie; and US Senator Tim Scott, also of South Carolina.
Trump told reporters traveling with him on his campaign stops in New Hampshire and South Carolina on Jan. 28 that Haley called him recently to tell him she was considering a White House bid and that he told her she should do it.
“I talked to her for a little while, I said, ‘Look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run,’” Trump said, according to CNN. “She’s publicly said that ‘I would never run against my president, he was a great president.’”
Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and the state’s popular Governor Henry McMaster have endorsed Trump, but other state officials have waited with Haley jumping in and Scott considering.
Katon Dawson, a former South Carolina GOP chairman who’s backing Haley, estimated that Trump has solid support among about a third of GOP voters. But that means there’s an opportunity for Haley to win over other Republicans and even peel away some of Trump’s backers.
“It takes a lot of guts to be the first one,” Dawson said. “It takes a lot of nerve, and Nikki has that kind of nerve.”
