Who is Nikki Haley, the candidate running for the Republican nomination with Trump – USA – International

way to Donald Trump It seems more than obvious. After that A comfortable victory in the Iowa caucuses and then, this week, in the New Hampshire primary The former president is already emerging as the winner of the Republican Party primaries While 48 states are left to vote with more than five months left in between.

The only thing standing in his way is the candidacy of Nikki Haley, former governor of South Carolina and former ambassador to the UN.

who was the last survivor in a contest that began with 13 candidates but evaporated in the blink of an eye due to Trump’s near-total dominance of the party’s base.

In New Hampshire, when only the former president and Haley Card remained, The former received 55 percent of the vote compared to 44 for the former governor. And although the numbers don’t seem devastating on the surface, the format of the primaries and what follows on the calendar do They believe that Trump will win and maybe lose.

New Hampshire is, in a sense, an unusual state for Republicans, as it is home to a large number of independent voters and a high population of moderate conservatives. In other words, it was the ideal state for someone like Haley to surprise herself and establish herself as an alternative to Trumpism.

But from now on the primaries will head south, with elections in South Carolina, Nevada and other states where the former president is deeply favored given the more rural, conservative and lower-class makeup that exists among them.

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In this week’s poll, Trump leads Haley by 30 points in the majority and leads her by 50 points in national polls. Even if a miracle does happen in the Carolina election, because it is his home state, few believe a victory there will change the dynamics of the race.

Not only that, there is a high possibility that the fight will end in the coming weeks. First, because there is enormous pressure within the party for Haley to drop her candidacy and endorse Trump.

But, secondly, because a former president can get more than half the delegates needed to win the nomination in six weeks when the famous “Super Tuesday” occurs, an election day where 16 states vote and about 50 percent is at stake. Percentage of representatives.

“Haley’s victory in New Hampshire opened up the option of a competitive process, perhaps remote. But that didn’t happen and momentum is everything for Trump now,” said Nat Cohen, an election expert New York Times.

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For many, if Haley stays in the race until the end, or at least until Super Tuesday, That’s because he might be signed up for a post-Trump future or even a new position if he wins the presidential election.

If the former president ends up as the nominee but loses the general election, in some ways that would be the end of Trumpism.

Although Trump won the 2016 elections, everyone remembers that he lost the popular vote and then the 2018 and 2022 congressional elections, as well as re-election in 2020. At his age and after that losing streak, What is more likely is that the Republican Party will begin to shift toward a more moderate vision and more in tune with the majority of Americans.

And Haley, depending on how she does in the remaining primaries, would be an ideal candidate to restore and revitalize that more traditional faction of the party, which today lives in ostracism.

Married to an Afghanistan war veteran, Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley was born in 1972 in Bamberg (South Carolina) to Sikh immigrants, originally from Punjab, India. An original that Trump himself has used to question his legitimacy to be president.

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He graduated from Clemson University with a degree in accounting and began working for his mother’s textile company, which became a multimillion-dollar business.

He entered politics in 2004, when he won a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives. And in 2011, she became the first woman governor of her home state.

Although her relationship with Trump was never entirely friendly, after being elected president he appointed her UN ambassador, a position she left in late 2018. She has since devoted herself to preparing her candidacy, which she launched in February last year.

Due to its profile, Some say Haley would also be ideal as a vice presidential candidate, because she is a woman, a daughter of immigrants, more of the center, And could neutralize Trump’s negativity to a segment of the electorate.

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said, The truth is that the New Hampshire results also showed that former President Trump has holes in his armor. And things will be different after he faces a general election in November.

To begin with, it is still uncertain what course the investigation against him will take. Even if he wins the primary, a conviction in any of them could derail his nomination in July.

But so sensitive that his base doesn’t seem to be growing. As expected, in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Trump is a favorite among the most conservative and rural Republicans. At the same time, it did not fare well in other sectors of the population.

Haley, for example, had 74 percent of those who identified as moderate, 58 percent of those with higher education, and 66 percent of voters who were not registered Republicans (mostly independents).

And although New Hampshire is not a state in which Trump needs to win the general election (he has carried Democratic Party candidates since 2004), Its weakness in that sector of the population can emphasize many so-called swing states Or obscure states that hold the keys to the White House. Among them are Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia and Nevada.

“The New Hampshire election showed him to be a historically weak candidate, Especially since he was the president earlier. “Trump lost independents by nearly 20 points, along with a quarter of Republican voters, and once again underperformed with the type of suburban voters who are key to making any candidate competitive,” says Marco Freri, director of Hispanic media for the Democratic Party.

Freire also highlights that more than a quarter of voters in Iowa said they would not vote for Trump in the general election, while four in ten New Hampshire voters said they would be “dissatisfied” if it were Trump. .

According to Freire, this is largely due to the fact that the former president pushes an extreme agenda on issues such as abortion, which the majority of the population rejects. And, in that sense, Haley, who until recently no one bet on, could be the ideal couple.

But there is still a lot of fabric to be cut for that. This week, the former governor made it clear she doesn’t intend to drop out of the race — for now. And he launched himself against Trump, whom he called a “crazy,” who is losing his mental faculties — he confused her with Nancy Pelosi — and whose age is already weighing on him.

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Trump, for his part, has been attacking her from all angles since she became his only opponent in the primaries. And since then he calls her “bird brain” and there is not a day that he does not make fun of her Hindu name (Nimrata).

But as Republican strategist Neil Newhouse says, it’s only a matter of time. “Haley is just a distraction. The race is doomed and, in fact, a general campaign between Biden and Trump has begun. Two tremendously unpopular leaders but where will the next president come from. This choice is a choice between the lesser evil,” says Newhouse.

The former governor, meanwhile, will continue to wait on the sidelines until her opportunity arises.

Sergio Gomez Masseri
Time Correspondent
Washington
In X: @sergom68