Reeher Speaks with The Hill About Republican Nikki Haley Entering the 2024 Presidential Race

February 16, 2023

The Hill

Grant Reeher

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Federal

U.S. Elections

The Hill

Grant Reeher

Nikki Haley, who served as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration and as the first female governor of South Carolina, announced her official entry into the 2024 presidential race earlier this week.

Haley models herself as a conservative who embraces modernity rather than recoiling from it. The question is whether the GOP primary electorate right now is willing to embrace the message.

“It is going to be a lot harder for any Democrat to paint her as a fringe, dangerous candidate,” says Grant Reeher, professor of political science and director of the Campbell Public Affairs Institute.

“If Republicans get in the mindset of, ‘The first attribute we need is the ability to beat Joe Biden,’ then she becomes a very attractive candidate,” he says.

Read more in The Hill article, "The Memo: Haley tries to sell GOP on a different future."