Nikki Haley vows to take on “bullies” in 2024 bid against Donald Trump

Nikki Haley, the Trump administration’s US ambassador to the United Nations, is the first Republican to challenge former President Donald Trump for the party’s presidential nomination in 2024.

Although he previously denied the prospect of running against Trump if he sought re-election, the former South Carolina governor announced that he is running on a videos posted early Tuesday morning and will kick off the campaign at an event in Charleston Wednesday.

He considered himself a moderate candidate relative to Trump who could win the general election, noting that he “can’t stand bullies” while not directly referring to the former president. This is likely to appeal to party elites who fear that Trump will lose again to President Joe Biden, and who want to move away from Trump’s brand of MAGA politics after the candidates who were popularly elected did poorly in the midterms.

“Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections. That needs to change,” Haley said in a video of her announcement. “It’s time for a new generation of leadership.”

He also suggested that he would take a tough stance against America’s adversaries abroad, highlighting his foreign policy credentials.

“There are those who think that our ideas are not only wrong, but racist and evil. Nothing could be further from the truth. I have seen evil. In China, they commit genocide. In Iran, they kill their own people for challenging the government,” he said in the video.

If Haley wins, she will become the first woman and the first Asian American to win the GOP nomination for president, adding to the list of firsts she has achieved: the first female governor of South Carolina and the first Indian American to serve in state office there. .

Haley has occasionally criticized Trump, rejecting his plans to build a border wall and claiming that there are “very good people” on both sides of the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville where counter-protesters were killed. But he continued to serve in the administration as the US’s top diplomat from 2016 to 2018 and earned a rare glowing review from Trump when he left. Now that he’s challenging his former boss, it’s unclear whether he can continue to successfully straddle the line between Trump’s critics and allies.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley has been central to the presidency on foreign policy. He has one of the highest approval ratings of anyone in the Trump administration and is respected by his colleagues on the UN Security Council despite his support for controversial policy decisions, such as Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris Climate Agreement, and the UN Human Rights Council.

In an environment where most Americans cite government and inflation as the top problems facing the U.S., it’s unclear whether his foreign policy experience will resonate with voters. But Haley also has conservative credentials.

He won the governorship of South Carolina in 2011 with the support of the conservative Tea Party wing of the Republican party and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, intending to tighten voter ID laws, oppose the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state, and won bipartisan praise for taking it. took down the Confederate flag from the state capitol after a gunman killed nine Black churches in Charleston in 2015. In his video announcement, he hit on typical conservative priorities, railing against “leftist socialists” while calling for border security and fiscal responsibility.

Haley, who boasts she has never lost an election, and other Republicans who are reportedly considering a 2024 bid will face primary challenges. Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has not yet announced a candidacy, are tied 33-33 percent as the top choice of Republican voters in a February Monmouth University poll. By comparison, no other potential contender received more than two percent support. But it’s early in the cycle, and that number could change as candidates gather donors and pull endorsements.

An expanding GOP field may strengthen Trump’s candidacy. The more candidates announce, the more competition there is in the alternative to Trump’s path. There is concern among many in the party that Trump’s candidacy fears that his rivals will split the vote, allowing him to come out on top. That prompted some Republicans to call on the party to unite behind DeSantis.

Former Vice President Mike Pence, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin are among the other contenders. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott may make the announcement soon, as he is scheduled to begin a “listening tour” Thursday in Charleston and attend a presidential forum in South Carolina alongside Haley next month.