Nikki Haley, former U.N. ambassador under President Donald Trump, announced on Wednesday that she will be voting for Trump in the upcoming general election.
This endorsement is seen as a notable show of support considering the intense political — and often personal — rivalry between the two during the 2024 Republican primary campaign.
However, Haley also emphasized that Trump needs to work on winning over the millions of voters who supported her during the primary and continue to cast votes for her in ongoing contests. In her first public speech since leaving the race, Haley stated, “Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does that.”
Haley’s endorsement is another sign of Trump’s consolidation of GOP support heading into his rematch with President Joe Biden in the 2024 general election.
Meanwhile, Biden’s campaign has been working to win over Haley’s establishment Republican supporters, whom they view as potential swing voters. The campaign is quietly organizing a Republicans for Biden group, which will focus on the hundreds of thousands of Haley voters in each battleground state.
Despite Haley’s endorsement, the Biden campaign made it clear that they will continue to court voters who backed her in Republican primaries this year.
In her speech at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank she recently joined, Haley criticized Biden’s foreign policy and mishandling of the U.S.-Mexico border crisis. Earlier this month, she met with some of her donors in South Carolina to thank her top supporters, although her campaign insisted the event was not intended to push her backers toward any other candidate or discuss her future political plans.
If Haley, 52, decides to run for president again in 2026, she will need to win over Trump supporters in a Republican primary. But not every establishment Republican was happy about her endorsement.
For example, longtime bureaucrat John Bolton went on CNN to slam Haley for her endorsement. Bolton briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser.
Take a look —
Former Trump National Security Advisor John Bolton: “I noticed that in her [Nikki Haley] remarks, she said that she wanted to support a president who would ‘back America's allies’ and ‘hold its enemies accountable.’ That's not Donald Trump. That's not his record in office” pic.twitter.com/pUCjyQr9eQ
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 23, 2024