‘BADASS’ HALEY BEGINS 2024 RACE
The race for 2024 has officially arrived.
“You have a beautiful state, you have an even better motto: to live free or die,” former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said Thursday night to a standing-room-only crowd gathered at the town hall in Exeter, N.H., where the nation’s first primary will occur.
Haley is Donald Trump’s only official challenger for the 2024 Republican nomination to the presidency, so far.
Yet, one of her biggest hurdles may be convincing people who haven’t yet heard of her that she stands a greater chance of beating President Biden or whichever Democrat emerges next fall than Trump does.
It wasn’t that long ago that former U.N. Ambassador Haley was telling reporters she would not enter a race containing her old boss. That changed Tuesday, when Haley said in a campaign ad that she would seek the nation’s highest office.
Trump, for his part, reacted to the announcement Haley would seek the White House with a simple, “wish her luck!”
It would be fair to say that she has some work to do if she wants to win the Granite State, let alone the Republican nomination or presidency.
A Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday showed Haley garnering just 5% support among a list of 14 potential Republican nominees, compared to Trump’s 42% and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ 36%.
“Who?” was the frequent reply given when Exeter residents and business owners were asked about the campaign stop by Haley.
The Herald visited six businesses surrounding Exeter’s town hall ahead of the visit. Among those encountered, whether speaking to patrons or employees, the majority didn’t know who Haley was or that she was due to appear that evening in their small town of less than 15,000.
The employees at the Water Street BookStore had heard about the rally from a shopper about 3 hours before Haley spoke. The proprietor of Krypton Comics hadn’t heard, but a 12-yearold patron had.
Haley hadn’t taken a big risk coming to Exeter, according to the locals: it isn’t Trump Country, but it isn’t exactly not Trump country, though one of those locals introduced Haley.
“I have the honor and distinction of standing here in front of you and introducing the next president of the United States,” retired Brig. Gen. and former Senate candidate Don Bolduc said. “Without strong women in our lives, we cannot be successful.
“We have no better representation of the American dream than Nikki Haley,” he continued.
Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, delivered a wide-ranging speech covering her work in the South Carolina Legislature and as governor of that state, as well as her time as ambassador to the U.N.
Haley was seemingly happy to attack the socalled woke left, the government of Pakistan, Biden, crime, the state of the border, the status quo and the economy, but pointedly went out of her way to not criticize Trump, who she said kept his word to her during her tenure in his administration.
“Biden basically broke everything we attempted to fix,” she said of Trump’s administration.
Haley suggested the government balance the budget, as she said was done under her watch in South Carolina, increase American manufacturing, and “open up the energy sector.”
“Don’t buy dirty oil from Venezuela,” she said to wide applause.
She suggested electing her would go a long way toward healing the soul of the nation, which she declared is not racist.
“Of all the threats we have, the one that really bothers me is that we have this national self-loathing that has taken control of our country,” she said.
“We have to do some serious work,” she continued. “The best way to do that is to put a badass woman in the White House.”