On Wednesday, Indian-American and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley declared her candidacy for the 2024 presidential elections, becoming the first Republican rival to challenge former US President Donald Trump.
Overview
In her speech, Haley stressed that Americans are willing to “move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past” and “more than ready for a new generation to lead [them] into the future.”
Haley, who served as the US Ambassador to the UN under the Trump administration, did not condemn her former boss, but reserved her criticism for President Joe Biden’s disastrous handling of the American troops’ withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, his foreign policy toward China, Russia, and North Korea, and his economic policies.
Get excited! Time for a new generation.
— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) February 14, 2023
Let’s do this! 👊 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/BD5k4WY1CP
Additionally, in her address, Haley demanded term limits for Congress members, stronger border security, and a rise in the production of domestic oil and gas, while denouncing bailouts for big businesses.
With respect to Beijing, she emphasised, “Communist China will end up on the ash heap of history.” Targeting Beijing and Moscow, Haley underscored that “I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels.”
“My purpose is to save our country from the downward spiral of socialism and defeatism,” she asserted, claiming that she wanted to see the US “strong and proud, not weak and woke.”
Political Career
Haley was the first Indian-American to serve in the US’ presidential cabinet under Trump. Furthermore, she has often referred to her no-loss track record in the elections so far, having been elected as the South Carolina governor twice.
In fact, she was the first woman and minority member to be elected as governor of the state in 2010, while being the youngest in the country to do so at the age of 38.
It’s time for a reset and a new chapter in national Republican politics, and there’s no better person to help write that new chapter than our former governor and my good friend, Nikki Haley! 🇺🇸
— Ralph Norman (@RalphNorman) February 15, 2023
(3/3) pic.twitter.com/3HxygLFhqP
Moreover, while serving her second term as the governor of South Carolina in 2015, she actively promoted the bill that called for the removal of thew Confederate flag in the state after nine Black parishioners were murdered by a White supremacist at a Charleston church.
She also gave the Republicans’ response to former President Barack Obama’s 2016 State of the Union Address.
Trump Link
Haley had famously said in the past that she would not contest for presidency opposite Trump, but appeared to have changed her mind as she called for “mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old,” in an apparent reference to both Biden, 80, and Trump, 76.
In this respect, last month, Trump told WIS-TV that Haley had asked for his opinion regarding her presidency run; “So I said, ‘If your heart wants to do it, you have to go do it,’” said Trump, quoting his reply to Haley.
However, following her announcement, Taylor Budowich, the spokeperson for Trump, called her “just another career politician.”
Indian Connect
Born to Indian immigrant Sikh parents, Ajit Singh Randhawa and Raj Kaur Randhawa, in Punjab, Haley was named Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, but adopted her middle name early on when her family moved to the US in the 60s, as her father accepted a teaching job in a predominantly black college in South Carolina. Though raised as a Sikh, Haley converted to Christianity in 1996, after her marriage to Michael Haley.
Nikki Haley. Rishi Sunak. Suella Braverman.
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) February 15, 2023
A growing list of brown conservatives telling their fellow (white) conservatives what they want to hear. And busy trying to block today's immigrants and refugees from having the same opportunities that their own parents had.
Haley mentioned the racism she faced while growing up as a “brown girl in a black and white world” during the 2020 Republican National Convention. Nonetheless, on Wednesday, she highlighted that the US was not a racist country.