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Republican Nikki Haley joined the 2024 race for president this week, changing into the primary main rival to former President Donald Trump in a area that’s anticipated to develop in coming months. Amongst them are the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, former vice chairman Mike Pence, former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. Listed here are some issues to know in regards to the former South Carolina governor and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations:
‘I used to be completely different’
Haley, 51, grew up within the small rural neighborhood of Bamberg, South Carolina, the daughter of Indian immigrants. Raised within the Sikh religion by a father who wore a turban and a mom who wore a sari, she has described enduring racist taunts and feeling like she didn’t slot in, an expertise she says had an impression on on her private and political life. In a video asserting her presidential bid, Haley referenced that previous, saying she grew up “not Black, not white — I used to be completely different.” She additionally insisted — as she has in previous speeches — that America is just not a racist nation. “Nothing might be farther from the reality,” she stated in her formal announcement Wednesday.
Notable firts
Earlier than changing into South Carolina governor, Haley was an accountant and served within the state Home of Representatives. In her first marketing campaign in 2004, she defeated the state’s longest-serving Home member. Three phrases later, she made a longshot bid for governor and defeated a area of extra veteran politicians to grow to be the primary girl and first Indian American to guide South Carolina. At 38, she additionally was the nation’s youngest governor. Haley is the primary girl to be a significant candidate for president in 2024, and simply the fifth Republican girl this century.
Divisive image
Haley’s greatest second on the nationwide stage as governor got here throughout her second time period, when a self-avowed white supremacist who had been pictured holding Accomplice flags murdered 9 Black parishioners as they gathered for Bible research in a Charleston church. For years earlier than the 2015 killings, Haley had resisted calls to take away the Accomplice flag from the Statehouse grounds, even casting a rival’s push for its removing as a determined stunt. However after the bloodbath and with the help of different main Republicans, Haley advocated for laws to take away the flag. It got here down lower than a month after the murders.
Haley later confronted criticism for telling conservative host Glen Beck in a 2019 interview that the Charleston shooter “hijacked” the beliefs many related to the flag, together with the “service, and sacrifice and heritage” it meant to some. After many responded saying that the flag represented treason and racial hatred, Haley stated in a press release on Twitter that she stood by her name to take away it. In a 2020 speech to the Republican Nationwide Conference that adopted weeks of protests alleging racial injustice by police, Haley referred to as the flag a “divisive image” that was eliminated peacefully.
Historical past with Trump
Haley has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Trump, going from harsh critic to ardent supporter and now a 2024 rival.
Throughout the 2016 Republican presidential main, Haley supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. She later backed Texas Sen. Ted Cruz. She described Trump as “all the things a governor doesn’t need in a president.” However Haley in the end stated she would again the GOP nominee, and shortly after Trump gained the presidency, she agreed to function the brand new administration’s ambassador to the United Nations. She was a whole-hearted supporter of his 2020 reelection bid. Her most up-to-date reversal: Her determination to hunt the presidency after initially saying she wouldn’t problem Trump if he ran once more.
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