Nikki Haley in portrait: January shows how dangerous this woman could be for Donald Trump

Haley focuses on both in her new ad, which will run in Iowa and New Hampshire, the two US states that will host the first primaries in January. It will stop “the chaos in our streets and in our universities” and overcome “the chaos of the past.” She is referring to violent anti-Israel rallies for which Biden is responsible. And the ongoing chaos surrounding Trump.

She wants to be a woman without drama, a person with sense. The strategy works. According to polls, the former governor of South Carolina is in second place among Republican presidential candidates. Well behind leader Trump, but clearly ahead of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (45).

Haley is catching up, and influential conservative groups have noticed. The daughter of Indian immigrants gets a lot of money and more encouragement from them. Wall Street bankers are recommending her for election. She has to rent larger halls for her performances. In the televised debates, she flaunts her Republican opponents because she appears smarter, more aggressive and more eloquent.

New Hampshire as the only chance

That’s probably why the news channels’ experts discuss their chances every evening. There is only one and it is called New Hampshire. She must win the primaries in the small American state on January 23, or at least come second after Trump. If she fails, she will be eliminated.

Your prospects are intact. Republicans in New Hampshire are considered moderate. Non-party members are allowed to vote there. Haley’s campaign coffers are full. There are enough reserves to last until Super Tuesday, March 5, when more than a dozen states vote at the same time. “There’s another man in front of us,” Haley said recently. She was referring to Trump, against whom she consciously positions herself: as a moderate politician who wants to lead her party away from conservative populism.

She distances herself from the man who once led her to the big political stage. Trump brought Haley to New York in 2017 and appointed her ambassador to the UN. Haley had him to thank and made an impression on the international stage.

Converted to Christianity

In the early 1970s, her parents emigrated from India to the American state of South Carolina. Her father was a biology professor, her mother founded a fashion company; Nikki was already doing the bookkeeping there at the age of 13. She studied accounting and remained active in the fashion world. She met Michael Haley in college. The two got married in a Sikh temple and church. She later converted to Christianity. The couple has two adult children.

She often talks about her origins. “I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants,” she said at the 2020 Republican convention. Her father wore a turban and her mother a sari. “I was a brown girl in a black and white world.” Which was sometimes painful. “We faced discrimination and difficulties, but my parents never allowed themselves to be ruled by resentment and hatred.”

Women such as former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925 – 2013) and Senator Hillary Clinton (76) inspired her to enter politics. Nikki Haley went through the bullock tour, starting in the South Carolina legislature and being elected governor of her home state twice: in 2010 and 2014.

Unpredictable

Politically, the Republican describes himself as a “pragmatic conservative” – sometimes derided by critics as fickle. She’s a flip-flopper, a turncoat who sometimes says one thing and then another, depending on her current mood. For example with Trump. He had “lost all political consent,” Haley said after storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. She rowed back soon after. Your party needs Trump. That’s why she had no ambitions for the White House – and then ran for office anyway.

As UN ambassador, she criticized China, and as governor, she helped Chinese companies set up shop in South Carolina. She dismissed Trump’s travel ban on Muslims as “absolutely un-American.” At the UN, she defended his ruling not to allow refugees from six Muslim countries into the US.

The country has now taken a clear position on foreign policy. For Israel, for Taiwan, for Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin (71) describes them as ‘murderers’. Under President Haley, the US would likely resume more responsibility in the world – a departure from Trump’s isolationism.

While this resonates with moderate Republicans, some Democrats like Haley more than President Biden. And that’s their problem. Haley’s party is conservative and populist. But it especially appeals to those Republicans who don’t like Trump. There aren’t enough of them to make Haley the Republican nominee. How far behind Trump? According to studies, 50 percent.