This past fall, there was a midterm election, so in about a year and a half, there will be a presidential election, which means that people are starting to announce their campaigns. 

On February 13, Nikki Haley, the former governor and first woman governor of South Carolina, announced her bid for the Republican nomination. She also served as the United Nations ambassador under former president Donald Trump. 

I find it very interesting that she announced her campaign for a few reasons. She is an excellent speaker. I remember from back in 2015, she gave a very well-spoken Republican response to Obama’s state of the Union. .

I thought she had a chance to go big and maybe one day become president. In 2016, when Donald Trump won the nomination, she was one of the many Republicans that were strongly against him; she was one of the “never Trumpers.” She had been a more moderate Republican, but after Trump became president, she started to support Trumpism. She tried to buddy up with Trump and then became the ambassador to the United Nations under Donald Trump. When she did that, she threw away her best shot at becoming President one day. One thing that I think would have made her a strong candidate was that she was moderate and did not just follow what the national party was doing. I believe that her policy stances made her stand out, but she threw away that advantage by giving in to Trumpism. She was fiscally conservative, and when she was governor, she fought hard against any tax increases. She was very pro-Israel and pro-small business and fought against heavy regulations. These are all traditionally Republican positions. When it came to social issues, she was more free-flowing. When she was governor of South Carolina, there was a bill that would have forced transgender people to use the restroom of their birth gender, and she vetoed it because she did not think it was a big deal and thought it would hurt more people than it helped. She also had interesting positions when it came to immigration. She was the daughter of immigrants, so she never had very strong positions against immigration. She encouraged immigration to happen as long as it was legal. All this to say, I think that if, during Trump’s presidency, she had stayed independent of him, she could have made a big name for herself. In 2016, Time Magazine named her one of the 100 most influential people in the world. She was on the rise. But then she hooked herself to Trump like most Republicans, and in my opinion, that did not work for her. 

Even though I keep saying that I do not think she will do well in this Republican Primary, it is still significant that she is running. During the Trump era, she was a part of Trump’s inner circle, and now that she is getting ready to run against him, it shows that his “inner circle” is revolting against him and are tired of him having control of the party. Her announcement is significant, and I can not wait to see what happens with the Republican presidential primary.