Nikki Haley announces 2024 presidential bid

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Nikki Haley, the former governor of South Carolina and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, announced Tuesday that she will make a bid for the White House, becoming the first Republican to challenge former President Donald Trump for the party's nomination.

Haley, who served under Trump, made the announcement in a video posted online, in which she declared that "it's time for a new generation of leadership."

"I'm Nikki Haley, and I'm running for president," she says at the close of the video.

The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, and would go on to become the state's first female governor and the first Indian-American to lead the state. If she wins the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, she would make history again as the first woman and first Asian-American at the top of the GOP ticket.

Haley is set to deliver a speech to supporters announcing her run in Charleston, South Carolina, on Wednesday, and then travel to New Hampshire and Iowa, the first states on the presidential primary calendar, in the days after. Haley will return to South Carolina in mid-March for a conservative forum.

In her campaign announcement, Haley lamented that Republicans lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight elections, a trend "that has to change."

"The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again," she said.

Haley initially told The Associated Press in April 2021 that she would not run against Trump if he decided to mount a third presidential campaign, but indicated in an interview with Fox News that her plans for her political future may have changed, citing the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan and economic woes.

Haley has consistently polled third or fourth behind Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, another expected candidate, in early polls on the 2024 GOP presidential primary.

In a Club for Growth Action poll of GOP voters nationally released earlier this month, Haley placed fourth, with 5% of the vote. But GOP operatives and South Carolina-based Republican leaders have said Haley's recognition in and ties to the Palmetto State could help her in a presidential run.

"With Nikki Haley officially entering the race for the presidency — and the only true contender at this point being her former boss — this is going to prove to be a fight of formidable foes," Dave Wilson of the Palmetto Family Council, a prevalent South Carolina conservative-leaning nonprofit, told CBS News. "Over the years in South Carolina, people have quite often underestimated Nikki Haley. At this point, I expect the next 12 months to prove how well she can master the national stage."

She delivered the Republican response to then-President Barack Obama's State of the Union address in 2016.

Following her two terms in the governor's mansion, she was selected by Trump as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, serving in the role from January 2017 to December 2018. After leaving the Trump administration, Haley launched the Stand for America PAC, which was active during the 2022 midterm elections.

She will surely be denounced as a traitor to Trump. And, she isn't exactly White enough for the Repugs' White Nationalist base.

She also lacks sex appeal.

The Democrats have lots of sexy women who could run.

Republican women just look like a bunch of Karens.

But, yes, Bill Clinton's $200 haircuts had to have been what persuaded a lot of female (and gay male) voters.

Donald Trump probably also has a lot of sex appeal, in a sick way.

Hillary Clinton was clearly much more qualified. But, a lot of women just don't want to see a woman get ahead.

He had a lot of charm, he was very convincing about his "feeling your pain". That is what so many said. I am the wrong person to ask about that .

Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression. Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety.

Also, it is generally the tallest candidate who wins. In addition to being the one who puts on the most "alpha", "confident" act.

Among other social mammalian species, typically the group's leader is the male who can pump himself up the highest, and who can subdue all other competitors. The leader gets prime breeding rights. And, the females of the herd wouldn't want to breed with a lesser male.

A candidate like Mrs. Haley would be too confusing for most voters.

Moreover, Mrs. Haley pretends to be an evangelical Christian. The Bible clearly states



How could an evangelical Christian, in good conscience, vote for Mrs. Haley?

Religion and biology are both against her.

They vote for marjory Greene. So why not?

A rally kicking off former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s 2024 presidential campaign opened Wednesday with an invocation from a Christian pastor – a practice not unusual for a GOP political event.

What was notable, however, was Haley’s choice of pastor: John Hagee, a high-profile televangelist and founder of a Christian Zionist group, and a political activist who has made headlines for a number of controversial remarks, including those considered anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic.

“To Pastor Hagee, I still say I want to be you when I grow up,” Haley said.

Haley and Hagee have had a relationship for several years.

In 2018, when Haley was the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Haley spoke to Hagee’s group, Christians United for Israel, at its annual summit, and Hagee presented her with an award. In 2021, they visited Israel in the same group.

Hagee’s appearance at the rally is the latest in a long history of political involvement, stretching back to his endorsement of segregationist George Wallace in 1968.

Hagee endorsed Sen. John McCain in the 2008 presidential election, but McCain publicly renounced the endorsement after a previous sermon of Hagee’s came to light in which Hagee appeared to assert that Adolf Hitler was half-Jewish and was sent by God to drive Jews to Israel. Hagee suggested that it was Jews’ “disobedience” of God that “gave rise” to their persecution.

Hagee has also suggested that Hilter’s Catholic background contributed to his anti-Seminitism and appeared to refer to the Roman Catholic Church as the "apostate church" and the "great whore,” among other anti-Catholic remarks noted by Catholics, including the Catholic League, which tracks anti-Catholic discrimination. Hagee later apologized for some of his remarks on Catholicism, and defended his remarks on Jews as mischaracterized.

He has also been criticized for anti-Islam remarks.

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which killed nearly 1,400 people and caused billions of dollars in damage, Hagee sparked controversy again by asserting that the storm was “the judgment of God against the city of New Orleans” for its sins, including a gay pride parade planned for the time the storm hit. He later backtracked on the statements.

Hagee has also suggested that the antichrist will be gay and created the “blood moon prophecy” suggesting that a series of lunar events beginning in 2014 were the start of the end times as described in the Bible.

Despite the controversies, Hagee has remained influential in conservative and evangelical circles.

He is the founder of Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas, which boasts more than 20,000 members. The services are also televised, reaching many others.

Hagee was a high-profile endorsee of former President Donald Trump, and his church has hosted pro-Trump figures including Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, MyPillow CEO Michael J. Lindell, who has promoted the theory that the 2020 election was illegitimate.

Hagee’s appearance at Haley’s rally signals the pastor’s openness to moving away from Trump, who remains Haley’s only official competition – though that is expected to change as other Republicans are expected to join in the race in the months to come.

Larry Hogan or Chris Sununu, maybe Liz Cheney.

..."Her candidacy did remind me that I need to immigrate to India so I can demand they start taking down parts of their history," she said. "What's with the worshipping of the cows? They're all starving over there. Did you know they have a rat temple, where they worship rats?"...

...Coulter also called Haley a "bimbo" and a "preposterous creature," criticizing her for having advocated removing the Confederate flag from the grounds of the South Carolina Statehouse in the wake of the 2015 shooting at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.

"This is my country, lady," she said. "I'm not an American Indian, and I don't like them taking down all the monuments."