Why Nikki Haley For President Is A Mistake

The former South Carolina Governor would only clear a path for another Trump nomination

Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley’s bid for the White House isn’t just a mistake — it’s a blunder that could potentially risk another Donald Trump versus Joe Biden matchup in 2024.

Haley is the newest, and currently, only challenger to former president Trump for the Republican nomination for president. Haley served as governor of South Carolina from 2011 to 2017 and as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2017 to 2018 under the Trump administration.

Haley posed a challenge to some of the negative narratives and perceptions around the Republican party. For starters, she’s the daughter of Indian immigrants. She also brought South Carolina past the Civil War by removing the Confederate battle flag from the state capital in response to the massacre of Black churchgoers by the hands of a white supremecist in 2015.

One would assume Haley would be hailed by the party to onboard two important voter blocs Republicans have struggled with in recent years: women and immigrants. But Haley’s flip-flopping isn’t likely to attract anyone at all.

Haley is simply just another politician. After accusing former President Trump of being sympathetic to the Ku Klux Klan and having the attitude of a “kindergartener” during the 2016 campaign, she seems to have done a full 180 without any reference to her past statements.Compare that to President Biden’s flip-flopping on key issues during his 2023 state of the union address, saying Republicans are coming to slash social security benefits for Americans by sunsetting legislation every five years, despite Biden co-sponsoring an identical bill as senator of Delaware.

A February Reuters/Ipsos poll has Trump with the support of 43 percent of Republican primary voters, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at 31 percent and Haley at 4 percent. Trump doesn’t need a majority of Republican voters to win. He just needs the field to become so crowded that he wins by plurality.

Haley has no path to victory in a Republican primary. Voters who want change should rally around DeSantis. His resume is the same, if not better, than anything Haley could boast.

The choice here is obvious, and if Americans want to move on from the endless Trump versus Biden news cycle, they’ll pay Haley’s campaign no mind.