Nikki Haley 2024 Launches

For once, I agree.

Nikki Haley should have ran for president in 2012.

The Bulwark:

“On paper, Nikki Haley should be a top-tier contender in the 2024 Republican primary. She’s a successful former governor from an important, early primary state. She has an impressive personal backstory, solid foreign policy chops, and great candidate skills, too. This used to be an extremely attractive package for GOP primary voters.

Used to be.

But not anymore. …

And Haley, despite how good she is on paper, finds herself in that same tier: No one is asking for what she’s selling. Why is that? …

While many Republican voters may be moving off Trump the man, the forces that he unleashed within the party—economic populism, isolationist foreign policy, election denialism, and above all, an unapologetic and vulgar focus on fighting culture war issues—remain incredibly popular with GOP voters. …”

This announcement speech is like a window into the past.

This was the GOP brand around 15 to 20 years ago. Many of the people who would have been thrilled by this speech and would have considered voting for Nikki Haley are now dead. Many of the people who would have been the most repulsed by it back then are now in the prime of their lives. The Nikki Haley lane is now in the moderate suburban liberal wing of the Democratic Party.

By announcing she is running for president, Nikki Haley is only hurting Ron DeSantis. If anything, she is helping Trump in the early primary states by splitting the True Con vote. This campaign is going nowhere because the message only resonates with around 15% of Republican voters.