(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley officially launched her presidential bid Wednesday, jumping into a potentially bruising GOP primary challenge against former President Donald Trump.
Haley, who rolled out a video announcing her campaign Tuesday, spoke in Charleston Wednesday, casting herself as a new chapter in American politics in an apparent dig both at President Joe Biden and Trump.
“We’re ready, ready to move past the stale ideas and faded names of the past, and we are more than ready for a new generation to lead us into the future,” she said. “I come here today with a vision of that future.”
Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under Trump, cast the stakes of the 2024 presidential race in near apocalyptic terms, warning that supposed weakness at home and abroad put the country at peril.
“The stakes are nothing less than our survival. And you and I and every American is being summoned to bold action. And so, I have an announcement to make,” she said.
“I stand before you as the daughter of immigrants, as the proud wife of a combat veteran and as the mom of two amazing children. I’ve served as governor of the great state of South Carolina and as America’s ambassador to the United Nations. And above all else, I’m a grateful American citizen who knows our best days are yet to come if we unite and fight to save our country. I have devoted my life to this fight, and I’m just getting started. For a strong America, for a proud America, I am running for president of the United States of America.”
She said it’s time to send a “tough-as-nails woman to the White House.”
“May the best woman win,” she said, to a cheering crowd.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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