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POLITICAL BRIEF Nikki Haley announces run Newsom Announces for president, challenging Trump Governor Awards of More Than $825 Million to MEG KINNARD | AP NEWS
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ikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, announced her candidacy for president on Tuesday, becoming the first major challenger to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination. The announcement, delivered in a tweeted video, marks an about-face for the ex-Trump Cabinet official, who said two years ago that she wouldn’t challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024. But she changed her mind in recent months, citing, among other things, the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change,” a nod to the 76-year-old Trump’s age. “You should know this about me. I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels,” Haley said. “I’m Nikki Haley, and I’m running for president.” Haley, 51, is the first in a long line of Republicans who are expected to launch 2024 campaigns in the coming months. Among them are Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis,
former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina. President Joe Biden has said he intends to seek reelection in 2024, stalling any jostling for the Democratic nomination. Haley has regularly boasted about her track record of defying political expectations, saying, “I’ve never lost an election, and I’m not going to start now.” If elected, Haley would be the nation’s first female president and the first U.S. president of Indian descent. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Haley grew up enduring racist taunts in a small South Carolina town and has long referenced that impact on her personal and political arc. In the three-and-a-half minute video, Haley referenced that past, saying she grew up “not Black, not white — I was different.” Despite that, Haley insisted that America is not a racist country: “Nothing could be further from the truth.” Playing in the background of her video were images of media reports related to The New York Times Magazine’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “1619 Project” — which centered
Build Affordable Housing Through Accelerated Approval Process GOV.CA.GOV | CONTRIBUTED
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks during a news briefing at the White House, in Washington, Sept. 15, 2017. Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, announced her candidacy for president on Tuesday, becoming the first major challenger to former President Donald Trump for the 2024 Republican nomination.| Courtesy Photo of AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
the country’s history around slavery. Haley never mentions Trump by name in the video, instead saying “the Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again.” Haley leans into a call for “a new generation of leadership,” which has become the refrain of her messaging leading up to the launch. There appears to be openness among Republicans to new leadership, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. In an open-ended question asking Republicans to choose who they want to lead their party, a majority of Republicans didn’t choose either Trump or
DeSantis, considered the former president’s top rival. But they also didn’t have a clear alternative in mind. Eleven other politicians, including Haley, are named by just 1% of Republicans as their preferred leader. In a statement, Taylor Budowich, spokesman for Trump’s super PAC, said Haley was “just another career politician.” “She started out as a Never Trumper before resigning to serve in the Trump admin,” he said. “She then resigned early to go rake in money on corporate boards. Now, she’s telling us she represents a ‘new generation.’ Sure just
See NIKKI HALEY on page B4
Biden’s empathy shapes policy, but some voters don’t feel it JOSH BOAK | AP NEWS
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Exp 12/28/23
itting aboard Air Force One last year, President Joe Biden was scanning the newspaper and spotted a ghostly photo of a child’s swing set engulfed in raw sewage. He didn’t just sigh or shake his head. Upon landing back in Washington, he ordered longtime aide Steve Ricchetti to phone the White House infrastructure coordinator. By August, Lowndes County, Alabama, had a $10 million grant to fix the problem with money from the 2021 infrastructure law. And administration officials told the community the money came at the president’s insistence. But here’s the rub for Biden: A majority of voters in Alabama and across the U.S. don’t believe he cares about
people like them. Nor do they trust his ability to manage a sprawling federal government that often moves at a sluggish pace. This perception has made it harder for Biden to sell his plans for the economy and make his case to voters around the country that he deserves a second term in an all-but-declared reelection campaign. “If you go and you walk in some of these folks’ yards, the kids are running outside and they’re running in sewage,” says Mitch Landrieu, the White House infrastructure coordinator. “These are the people that the president wants to touch.” For all of that, however, 53% of voters in the midterm elections said Biden didn’t care about people like them, according to AP VoteCast, a sweeping survey of the electorate. That belief about
President Joe Biden hugs Mia Tretta, a survivor of the Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, Calif., after she spoke in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, April 11, 2022.| Courtesy Photo of AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
Biden — a president known to commiserate with grieving families and offer to phone children who want puppies — is a reflection of how people judge leaders through a rigidly partisan lens. About 9 in 10 Republicans say Biden is indifferent to them; roughly that many Democrats see him as empathetic. “To Republicans, Biden
has no redeeming traits,” said Stanford University professor Shanto Iyengar. “Not only are evaluations of incumbents completely polarized, cues like personal traits matter less.” The broader public is also skeptical that Biden, at 80 years old, can oversee the
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To continue expanding the state’s affordable housing stock and increase capacity for additional climate-smart infill housing, Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the first funding awards under a new streamlined application process aimed at accelerating the development of new projects while saving time and money at the local level. What you need to know: Approximately 58 communities across California were awarded more than $825.5 million to build 9,550 homes as part of a new funding approval process that eliminates the need for a developer to submit multiple applications. This includes roughly $700 million in funds for multifamily development and $125 million for infill development. Today’s funding announcement will ultimately benefit an estimated 187,500 people
over the total lifetime of all projects combined. Why it’s important: The application process to receive state housing funding in California was needlessly complex, and time consuming, resulting in delayed projects and extra cost. Under Governor Newsom, this process has been overhauled. Now, what previously required four separate applications has been narrowed down to just one submission. What Governor Newsom said: “As we demand more housing to be built at the local level, it is incumbent upon the state to reimagine and modernize our own approval process,” said Governor Newsom. “State applications that were once redundant, and overly bureaucratic, are now streamlined to ensure projects are not stalled in an endless
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