Nikki Haley announced her 2024 presidential campaign on Valentine’s Day morning. The former South Carolina Governor, and UN ambassador, becomes the first candidate to enter the race against former President Donald Trump in the Republican primaries. In a video she posted on Twitter, Haley says, “It’s time for a new generation of leadership.” She continued, saying, “They all think we can be bullied, kicked around. 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.” As the daughter of two immigrants from India, Haley grew up to become South Carolina’s first female governor. She spent the past year traveling across the country, helping Republican midterm campaigns through her PAC, Stand for America.
FOX NEWS: Nikki Haley announces presidential campaign: ‘It’s time for a new generation of leadership’
By Ronn Blitzer; February 14, 2023
Former South Carolina governor and UN Ambassador Nikki Haley announced Tuesday that she is running for president, seeking the Republican nomination for the 2024 election.
In a video message posted on Twitter, Haley touted her record as South Carolina’s governor while looking to the future and the needs of the country.
“It’s time for a new generation of leadership,” Haley stated.
Haley identified numerous threats facing the country, from the “socialist left” to Russia and China, warning that there are those who see the United States as vulnerable.
“They all think we can be bullied, kicked around. 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.”
After a formal announcement Wednesday in Charleston, South Carolina, Haley hits the campaign trail first in New Hampshire and then Iowa, the two states that kick off the GOP presidential nominating calendar.
Political pundits had long viewed Haley as a potential GOP presidential contender, as she crisscrossed the country the past two years through her political group Stand for America, helping fellow Republicans running in the 2022 elections. Haley’s travels brought her numerous times to Iowa, New Hampshire, and Nevada, which hold the first, second and fourth contests in the Republican presidential nominating calendar. Haley’s home state of South Carolina votes third in the GOP primary schedule.
When speaking with reporters last year who questioned her about a White House run, Haley reiterated that “after November, we’ll figure it out. But you know what I’ve said — I’ve never lost a race. I’m not going to start now. If there’s place for me, we’ll put a hundred percent in, and we’ll finish it.”
Haley is the daughter of immigrants from India who grew up to become South Carolina’s first female governor. Behind the scenes, she had been ramping up her operation in recent weeks, with incoming staff heading to South Carolina.
“Nikki Haley has been laying the groundwork for a national launch ever since she went to the United Nations,” South Carolina based social conservative leader Dave Wilson told Fox News.
Haley joins former President Donald Trump in the race for the GOP nomination. Haley served in Trump’s administration as the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, leaving at the end of 2018 on good terms with the then-president.
Haley publicly broke away from Trump following the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, with statements condemning Trump for his words leading up to the events of that day, as well as his persistence in declaring that the 2020 election was stolen from him.
In January, Trump said Haley called him to discuss the possibility of her running against him.
“Go by your heart if you want to run,” Trump said he told Haley. And he said he told her she “should do it.”
Trump the appeared to take a dig at Haley, noting that she had previously “publicly” said she wouldn’t seek the White House in 2024 if Trump ran again.
The former president again took a mild shot at Haley in an interview with Hugh Hewitt earlier this month, saying, “Nikki suffers from something that’s a very tough thing to suffer from: She’s overly ambitious.”
Among the others making moves toward launching a campaign or seriously considering a Republican presidential run are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo; now-former Govs. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas; Govs. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, Kristi Noem of South Dakota and Glenn Youngkin of Virginia; former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey and former Rep. Will Hurd of Texas.