Washington: Nikki Haley formally launched her 2024 campaign for the White House on Wednesday (local time), presenting herself to voters as part of a “new generation” of Republican leaders who will win at the ballot box. Can Haley is now the first Indian American woman to enter the Republican presidential race. As the former governor of South Carolina and US ambassador to the United Nations, Haley presented herself as the proud daughter of Indian immigrants, offering a new future for the Republican Party. Haley noted her parents in the audience and said, “My parents left India in search of a better life. They found it in Bamberg, South Carolina, population 2,500. We grew to love our small town.” … But it wasn’t always easy. We were the only Indian family. No one knew who we were, what we were about, or why we were there. But my parents knew. And every day, they helped my brothers And reminded my sister that on our worst days, we are blessed to live in America,” Haley said.
Haley’s parents are from rural Punjab and moved to Amritsar in the early 1960s before moving to the US. Haley has often been heard talking about her Indian heritage, something she also reflected in a video announcing her candidacy on Tuesday. Video.
“But my mother always said, ‘Your job is not to focus on the differences, but to focus on the similarities,'” Haley told several hundred supporters in Charleston. , South Carolina. “And I believe the American people agree. We are ready to move beyond the old ideas and hazy names of the past, and we are ready for a new generation to lead us into the future.”
Haley declined to directly criticize former President Donald Trump, and instead focused her criticism on President Joe Biden and the establishment of leaders of both parties in Washington. In a subtle dig at both Trump and Biden, Haley called for “mandatory mental competency tests” for politicians over the age of 75. Trump is 76, and Biden is 80.
America is not our prime past – it’s just that our politicians are their past,” she told the crowd. Haley is so far the only GOP challenger to her former boss Trump, who announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination last November. She joined the Trump administration in January 2017 as the US ambassador to the United Nations and left the post in late 2018.