As long as Nikki Haley has been a national figure, she has held a distinct, defined role in politics. She rose to stardom as a two-term governor of South Carolina and then served as President Donald Trump’s first U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Along the way, she was repeatedly mentioned as a possible presidential or vice presidential figure (to the point that speculation was rampant that she would replace Mike Pence on Trump’s reelection ticket). Haley was one of the few high-profile members of the administration to leave on good terms with Trump, and she did so without becoming a liability on the trail for down-ballot candidates, especially other women.
So, with no clearly defined role in the Republican Party or conservative movement and Democrats in power, what is Haley doing now?
The answer seems to be: one thing at a time.
“Since I left the ambassadorship, I wrote a book [With All Due Respect: Defending America With Grit and Grace], I started a PAC [called] Stand for America, which now has millions of supporters, which I’m super proud of,” Haley told the Washington Examiner in a recent interview. “We were very involved in the elections leading up to November. They didn’t all go the way we wanted, of course, so we are focusing on doubling down on those efforts. We want to win back the House. We want to win the Senate. We want to recruit good quality candidates, and at the same time, we want to make sure that we show that the Republican Party is about solutions, not just sound bites.”
Born in 1972 as Nimrata Nikki Randhawa, the daughter of first-generation Indian immigrants, Haley (she took her husband Michael’s last name when they married in 1996) didn’t really start her career in politics in earnest until she ran for a seat in the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2004. The first Indian American woman to hold office ever in the Palmetto State, she remained there for three terms. After winning the Republican primary for the governor’s race by a hair, she stayed there until 2017, when Trump tapped her for the coveted role as ambassador to the U.N., a Cabinet-level position during her tenure.
Haley’s robust popularity — she had the strongest numbers of any Trump Cabinet official, including Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, and a 2019 poll found her with 75% approval among South Carolina primary voters — placed her in demand on the campaign trail last year. Iowa freshman Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks defeated her Democratic opponent, former state Sen. Rita Hart, in the November general election by a mere six votes. Although the state certified the victory, Hart contested it. Haley had endorsed Miller-Meeks, a veteran and physician, calling her a “conservative fighter” who would be “bringing Iowa values to Washington.” Haley’s valedictory jab in the race perhaps gave the public a preview of the type of campaign the former ambassador would run herself, taking aim at supposedly out-of-touch D.C. power pols: “We need to remind [Democrats] that Iowans choose who represents the 2nd District, not Nancy Pelosi.”
Haley traversed the country to stump in person for at least a dozen female candidates, as pandemic restrictions allowed (some turned into Zoom meetings). “I think it’s important when you have had a position that you don’t just look up but that you hold the ladder down. I’ve always tried to save women so they don’t make the mistakes that I made, so that they have extra guidance. Women don’t always have the support systems that men have. That’s just the reality. So, if I can ever provide that advice, support, or help along the way, I’m willing to do that for anyone that needs that.”
Mistakes? What mistakes might Nikki Haley be referring to? “The lessons I shared with the [elected women] recently,” she pivoted, “was that I know life is busy. I know legislation is fast. I know that politics is moving at a rapid pace. But don’t forget the people that you serve. … Be transparent. Over-communicate to your district.”
For Haley, mistakes and life lessons really are one and the same. Take Trump, for instance. Were some outlets to tell it, despite her lengthy career apart from him, Haley’s name is now only to be mentioned alongside his, and rarely in a good way. Politico magazine recently published a three-part profile on Haley. Half hit piece, half biography, the headline was “The 2024 hopeful can’t decide who she wants to be — the leader of a post-Trump GOP or a ‘friend’ to a president who tried to sabotage a democracy.”
What such writers see as insufficient certitude is, to Haley, genuine nuance. She is in a position to influence events on the Right, but only if she makes assessments on the merits rather than dogmatism or perceived gate-keeping. Haley criticized Trump for stoking the Jan. 6 riots but praised him for his speech at CPAC, held after the riots. A March CNN headline said Haley “flip flops” on the former president. A February Slate headline upped the ante: “What if Nikki Haley Doesn’t Believe in Anything?” Haley rejects the practice of evaluating every statement on whether it puts a politician on or against Team Trump.
“I don’t think that the country has to be ‘I’m for or against Trump.’ I think you have to be for America and whatever it takes to be free. I often say I didn’t agree with President Trump 100% of the time, I don’t agree with my husband 100% of the time. That’s most normal people. I will always applaud and defend the president on the policies that he fought for. I was proud to serve in his administration. But if there are certain issues that I take with him, that’s me being me — that’s me using the power of my voice. He knows that, and he always respected that about me. He also knows I was very loyal to him in the administration, and I think all those things can be true at the same time.”
Eric Wilson, the communications director for Miller-Meeks’s campaign and a veteran political consultant, told me he doesn’t understand why Haley’s nuance on Trump is portrayed so negatively when that trait is usually commended, especially in politics. “I think any two thinking people are going to disagree on some issues, and so the fact that she would disagree with anybody isn’t that unusual at all. The fact that a former ambassador had disagreements with a former president is not surprising at all.”
More concerning to Haley than whether or not she agrees with Trump on any given day is the media’s push to see things in black and white, without shades of gray. “I think the problem is we are seeing this massive shift towards labels. That’s a dangerous slope,” Haley said. “I’m not just a woman. I’m not just a minority. I’m not just someone who worked in the Trump administration. I can be pro-Trump, and I can also disagree with something that he might have done. Right now, you’ve got people who are wanting to label each person. When you label people, you divide people. All of these things are wrong. You should be bringing people together.”
That said, Haley isn’t afraid to stand alone. Perhaps the iconic moment of her time as ambassador was when she defiantly held up her hand, signaling opposition to the U.N. Security Council’s condemnation of Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Haley was outnumbered, 14-1. She remembers it as a “great isolation within the U.N.” but “a moment of great pride” for her personally. “I was proud of us acknowledging the truth. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and that’s where our embassy should have been all along. I have never run from scary moments. I have always found my courage when I need to show it,” she said.
Haley has needed that courage in her career thus far, and she will need it again if she aims where Republicans and Democrats alike think her path leads. She’s as elusive about the 2024 election as she is focused on the present. “I just don’t think I have to make a decision yet. My priority is, we are at a very important time for Republicans. If we don’t win the House and the Senate, it will be a massive game changer for our party. So, I see the fact that anyone is talking about 2024 is wasting time and energy. Everyone should be talking about 2022 and what we should be doing to strengthen our party.”
“I had to ask,” I said.
For the first time of the interview, Haley laughs: “If you didn’t ask, I’d think something was wrong.”
Nicole Russell (@russell_nm) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog.
