Nikki Haley, the former Republican governor of South Carolina, is officially running for president in 2024. She released a campaign launch video on Tuesday, becoming the first Republican to challenge former President Donald Trump for the party’s nomination.
“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 says in the video.
Haley is the first Republican to announce a campaign since Trump launched his 2024 bid in November. Haley was Trump’s appointee as ambassador to the United Nations, and previously said, “I would not run if President Trump ran.”
Prior to the ambassadorship in 2017, Haley served six years as the first female governor of South Carolina. During that time, she signed a bill into law requiring voters to show photo ID and approved the removal of a Confederate Flag from the state capitol after nine black people were killed in the racially-motivated Charleston church shooting.
In her campaign launch video, Haley describes herself as the “proud daughter” of Indian immigrants and says that as a child she was “not black, not white. I was different.” At one point, the screen flashes with newspaper headlines saying “Gov. Haley calls for tax cuts” and “Haley rips House budget.”
She said in the video that after the church shooting in 2015, “we turned away from fear, toward God and the values that still make our country the freest and greatest in the world.
“We must turn in that direction again,” she continued. “Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change.”
She said President Joe Biden’s track record has been “abysmal, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who Haley appointed to fill a vacated seat in 2012, is also preparing a presidential run, anonymous sources told the Wall Street Journal.
Another anticipated Republican challenger is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a one-time Trump ally who has taken the brunt of the former president’s attacks so far, despite not having announced a campaign.
This was a breaking news story. The details were periodically updated as more information became available.
