How seriously should we take Nikki Haley?
She's running. Now what.
During an interview on Thursday night with Fox News, Nikki Haley was blunt about her interest in running for president in 2024.
"Well, 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?' The second question is, 'am I that person that could be that new leader?' You know, on the first question, you can look all across the board, domestic, foreign policy. You can look at, you know, inflation going up, economy shrinking, government getting bigger, you know, small business owners not being able to pay their rent. Big businesses getting these bailouts, all of these things warrant the fact that, yes, we need to go in a new direction.
"So do I think I could be that leader? Yes, But we are still working through things and we'll figure it out. I've never lost a race. I said that then I still say that now. I'm not going to lose now.”
Which sounds a LOT like the former South Carolina governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations is running, no?
Haley’s pronouncement caught the eye of the MAGA-verse — in particular Taylor Budowich, the head of MAGA Inc. and a former spokesman for Donald Trump.
“Nikki Haley has become just another career politician whose ambitions matter more than her words,” he tweeted. “That’s the last thing we need. President Trump succeeded because he kept him promises and put America’s ambitions first.”
Budowich is referring to Haley’s past public assertion that she would not run for president in 2024 if Trump was in the field.
“I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” Haley said in the spring of 2021. “That’s something that we’ll have a conversation about at some point if that decision is something that has to be made.”
Haley, on Thursday, tried to explain away her past pledge of fealty for Trump as a generational thing.
"It's bigger than one person,” she told Fox. “And when you're looking at the future of America, I think it's time for new generational change. I don't think you need to be 80 years old to go be a leader in D.C. I think we need a young generation to come in, step up, and really start fixing things."
Haley is 51 years old. Donald Trump is 76 years old.
Aside from the kerfuffle over her past statement of support, there’s a bigger question at work here with Haley: How seriously should take her as a presidential candidate?
Start here: She has a remarkable personal story. After serving three terms in the South Carolina state House, she was elected governor — the first woman and first ethnic minority to hold that job in South Carolina. (Haley was only the second governor of Indian descent in the country, following Bobby Jindal of Louisiana into office.)
She was reelected easily in 2014. In January 2016, she was chosen to give the official Republican response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address. Later that year, President-elect Trump named her as the US ambassador to the United Nations.
She left that role at the end of 2018, parting on decidedly amicable terms with the president — a rarity in his administration.
“She’s done a fantastic job, and we’ve done a fantastic job together,” Trump said of Haley. “We’re all happy for you in one way, but we hate to lose you.”
That relationship seemingly soured after the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“We need to acknowledge he let us down,” she said of the former president.
”He went down a path he shouldn’t have, and we shouldn’t have followed him, and we shouldn’t have listened to him. And we can’t let that ever happen again.”
Of Trump’s political future in the party, Haley predicted: “He’s not going to run for federal office again. … I don’t think he’s going to be in the picture. I don’t think he can. He’s fallen so far.”
WHOOPS!
Trump is now not only running but leading the prospective 2024 GOP primary field.
The latest poll — conducted by the Economist and YouGov and released earlier this week — showed Trump at 44% to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis 32%. Former Vice President Mike Pence was at 5% and Haley was at 4%.
That’s broadly consistent with the Real Clear Politics polling average in the 2024 race. That has Trump at 44%, DeSantis at 30.5%, Pence at 6% and Haley at 3.5%.
What does all of this tell us? Haley isn’t an asterisk in the race. She has at least the potential to be a player. She needs to get in the race and get better known — in hopes of competing with the two frontrunners: Trump and DeSantis. (Which is probably why she is already moving toward running.)
Her biggest problem? Where does she land on Trump. She was once a loyal lieutenant for him during his administration. Then she broke with him over January 6. Then she said she wouldn’t run for president if he did. Now she is going back on that pledge.
Trump, whether he wins the nomination or not, remains the prime mover in the Republican presidential race. Everything is analyzed through its closeness or distance from him.
Where is Haley going to place herself in that orbit?