Key facts
- The former South Carolina governor has emerged as one of the top challengers to Trump after strong debate performances.
- She has held off on outright attacks on Trump and is accused by some of hedging her bets in hopes of a possible VP spot on the ticket.
- A recent gaffe on a question about the Civil War had her playing defense on the campaign trail for the past week or so.
While Donald Trump still has a large lead in the polls among Republican presidential hopefuls, Nikki Haley has emerged as perhaps the top challenger to the former president earning the nomination for the third election cycle in a row.
Haley emerged from the pack of non-Trump Republican hopefuls with strong performances in the primary debates, which vaulted her up in the polls and political betting sites as the most feasible alternative to Trump, leapfrogging Ron DeSantis in many of them.
Haley’s Background
The 51-year-old Haley is the daughter of Indian immigrants and became the first South Carolina governor who wasn’t a white male when she was elected in 2011. She also became just the second governor with an Indian background in U.S. history. While she is staunchly conservative on most issues, she earned attention when she split from party lines following the Charleston church shooting in 2015, when she changed her position on the Confederate flag flying over the S.C. statehouse, saying, “There is a place for that flag. It’s not in a place that represents all people in South Carolina.” The flag came down a short time later.
Her husband, Michael, is an officer in the South Carolina national guard and served a tour in Afghanistan in 2013. Currently, he’s on a one-year deployment to Africa that started in mid-2023.
Haley and Trump
Haley was critical of Trump in 2016, supporting first Marco Rubio and then Ted Cruz in the primaries. Eventually, she endorsed Trump after he won the nomination, and she resigned as governor to take a position in his administration, serving as ambassador to the United Nations. She became the first Indian-American to serve in a cabinet-level position.
While she is opposing him in the 2024 Republican primaries, Haley has been accused of pulling her punches against the former president. She has rarely spoken critically of him and said at one point that she would pardon him if he were found guilty in the federal trials he is currently facing. Some suspect that she is keeping her options open in the hopes of earning a nod as the vice-presidential candidate on a Trump 2024 ticket if he succeeds in winning the nomination.
Campaign 2024
Haley was one of more than a dozen Republicans who declared their candidacy for the 2024 presidential election. She was able to emerge from the pack due to strong performances at the primary debates. While the candidates clashed and spoke over each other at the early debates, Haley gave the impression of being the only “adult in the room”. As she skyrocketed in the polls, she became a target for the other candidates at later debates, most notably Vivek Ramaswamy, who called her “Dick Chaney in heels”. She was again able to show leadership and poise, defending herself forcefully while not resorting to name-calling and back-and-forth trash talk.
Based on her debate and poll performance, Haley earned the endorsement of the influential Koch network, a major Republican donor. The move was an upset as Florida governor Ron DeSantis had been considered the most viable alternative to Trump since the 2022 midterm elections. Backed by millions from the Koch’s, Haley has moved into second place, although she is still a long way from eroding Trump’s lead.
Trouble Spots
In addition to the promise to pardon Trump, which has earned scorn from some corners, Haley has had a few other setbacks recently on the campaign trail.
In one of the bizarre quirks that often occur during presidential campaigns, Haley recently earned criticism online for renaming her husband. His name is William Michael Haley, but, when they were dating in college, she told him she didn’t think he looked like a Bill and began calling him by his middle name. It’s not clear why this became an issue now since Haley first told the story in her memoir, which was published in 2012.
In a weightier gaffe, at a town hall, Haley was asked by an audience member about the causes of the Civil War. Her answer was, “I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run, the freedoms, and what people could and couldn’t do. What do you think the cause of the Civil War was?”
The audience member responded with shock that Haley didn’t mention slavery as a cause of the War, and she later issued an apology and clarification while taking criticism from other Republican candidates.
What’s Next
Does Haley stand a chance of beating Trump? It depends on what poll or political betting site you’re in. A recent New Hampshire poll had her just four points back and leading in women voters by six points, highlighting a weakness of Trump’s. Trump still has a wide lead in most national polls, however.
The most likely outcome is that Haley will finish a strong second to Trump in some early races but won’t be able to make up the big head start that Trump has. Her success with women voters see to make her an ideal vice-presidential candidate for the former president.
