The Post & Courier has learned that former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley will be making an announcement to run for her presidential bid in 2024 against Former President Donald Trump.
For months, Haley has planned out her bid for the Republican nomination in the 2024 ticket amongst current and potential candidates that would challenge incumbent President Joe Biden.
She had given a heads-up to her backers for a “special announcement” that will come Feb. 15 in her hometown of Charleston, S.C. at the Shed. Haley’s announcement could draw hundreds of supporters including those who previously supported her in the 2016 GOP primary.
A member of Haley’s inner circle had confirmed this announcement on Jan. 31.
The former South Carolina governor had teased a possible run for the White House for months. She had leaned on making her bid official in national interviews and with clues of footprints on social media.
After her governorship, Haley was the U.N. ambassador under the Trump administration. For the past decade, she had harbored intentions to make a run for the White House as the nominee for the GOP.
Prior to The Post & Courier learning about her intentions, Haley said she would not seek to challenge her former boss again. Now that message has shifted to say that the country needs to look forward to a different path.
“It’s time for a new generation,” Haley tweeted recently. “It’s time for new leadership. And it’s time to take our country back. America is worth the fight – and we’re just getting started.”
In her recent interview with Bret Baier on Fox News last week, Haley indicated that she was ready to make her bid for the White House.
“When you’re looking at a run for president, you look at two things. You first look at does the current situation push for new leadership? The second questions is “Am I that person that could be that new leader?”
In response, Haley answered: “Yes, we need to go in a new direction. And can I be that leader? Yes. I think I can be that leader.”
Since leaving her post as the United Nations ambassador in 2018, Haley, 51, has been a Charleston resident where she is living with her family on Kiawah Island.
Haley’s desires had alerted Trump of her leanings to make her bid for the Republican nomination in 2024.
In her home state, she boasted about how she never lost a political race including her tenure during the S.C. House of Representative or her two runs for governor.
Trump made a campaign stop at the S.C. Statehouse during his campaign swing, Trump told national reporter that he received a phone call from her former cabinet member about her run in 2024.
“I talked to her for a little while, I said, ‘Look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run,” Trump had told reporters over the weekend.
“She called me and said she’d like to consider it, and I said you should do it.”
In a conversation, Trump told Haley, “Go by your heart if you want to run.”
Haley’s announcement puts in a field of GOP candidates currently running or in the prospective that includes Trump, former Vice President Mike Pence, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Prior to Haley’s desire to run, fellow South Carolina politicians including Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Gov. Mark Sanford made their bids for the White House in 2016. Both had dropped out of the race early.
As the daughter of Indian immigrant, the former U.N. ambassador was a graduate of Clemson University with an accounting degree. She worked for a waste management company before joining her family’s business.
In her six years in the S.C. House of Representative, Haley was among those helping to lead a push for on-the-record voting. She caught other pundits by surprise announcing her bid for governor as the heir to then-Gov. Sanford as a fiscal conservative and calls for small government.
During the 2010 election cycle, she pooled poorly in the primary that included U.S. Rep Gresham Barrett, Lt. Gov. Andrew Bauer and then-state Attorney General Henry McMaster. The endorsement by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin turned her campaign around.
Haley’s prominence rose when she worked to get the Confederate battle flag removed from the Statehouse grounds in 2015 after an avowed racist murdered nine worshippers at Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church.
She endorsed U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida for the Republican nomination in 2016. Haley was critical of Trump’s behavior; she would end up taking a cabinet position as the U.N. ambassador.
Since leaving her post at the White House in 2018, the former South Carolina governor founded an advocacy group, Stand for America, which build her brand and a brief stint on board of Boeing.
Haley criticized Trump’s handling of the Jan. 6 Capitol riots, suggesting in a “Politico” interview that he lost any sort of “political viability” and wouldn’t run again.
This article was in production with The Post & Courier
