Nikki Haley presented a campaign video
As promised, former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley has announced her participation in the Republican primary for the 2024 presidential nomination. In her campaign video, she talked a lot about how, as a child of migrants, her parents taught her to pay attention to similarities rather than differences. True, in the same video she harshly attacked China, Russia and the “left-wing socialists” who allegedly seek to rewrite US history.
During her first run for office in South Carolina, she was supported by the far-right Tea Party faction within the Republican Party. Then she was unable to gain the support of the local business association Chamber of Commerce, which called for a vote for a Democrat, considering Haley's views too radical. True, after becoming governor, she showed herself to be a reliable ally of big business, allocating large subsidies to Boeing for the construction of an enterprise in the state, and in 2018, predictably, she joined the board of directors of the company.
Similarly, in 2016, she actively criticized Trump for racism and nationalism (then she supported Marco Rubio and then Ted Cruz), but less than a year later she joined his administration as ambassador to the UN.
There are only two candidates in the Republican race, and not counting Trump (who became the first Orange candidate in history), Haley will be the first woman of color to run as a Republican. Until other candidates join the race, Haley will have a difficult time fending off the many sexist attacks that Trump has become famous for since the 2016 campaign. The GOP base is also more negative towards women: in 2019, only 33% of Republicans said that there are not enough women in politics (79% of Democrats), and in 2022, 22% of Republicans said that male politicians are, on average, better than women ( only 4% of Democrats). Likewise on issues of race: Only 14% of Republicans think the country would benefit from more women of color in politics (70% of Democrats).
Author: Yan Veselov
