Nikki Haley from day one knew the road to the White House required not only mental strength but also financial muscle.
On February 14, the first generation Indian American threw her hat in the ring coming away with being the first among a so-called group of loyalists to challenge her former boss Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.
While making her announcement, Haley said all the right things to get her group of supporters fired up: that the Grand Old Party needs to move on from a party of the past obsessed with worn out ideas to that of facing the present and future challenges of America; and indirectly took a dig at the oldest sitting President Biden at 80 and the Republican challenger thus far Trump at 76. “… we won’t win the fight for the 21st century if we keep trusting politicians from the 20th century”, she said.
At the age of 51 Haley may have had exposure to politics by being a two-term Governor for South Carolina and serving as American Ambassador to the United Nations during the Trump administration. In fact she was perhaps among a small group of cabinet officials who left the dispensation in a civil way.
A popularity rating within the GOP of around 40 per cent, former President Trump is still way ahead with one poll showing Haley at a distant 4 per cent. Here comes the first challenge to Haley: taking on the Trump tirade and the toxic environment of his supporters first before challenging him on the finer aspects of what he stands for, if anything at all.
Haley may have been the first to publicly announce plans of challenging her former boss for the party nomination and making the rounds in Iowa and New Hampshire, but the list of potentials is certainly not going to stop at two. Governor DeSantis may not exactly come away as the political clone of Trump but GOP polls show him behind Trump; then there is the former Vice President Mike Pence with his backing from Christian groups; and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo who has made all the right noises on the foreign policy front especially against China.
Even as Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants, was rejecting the generalised notion of a “racist” America and that “self loathing is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic”, a conservative commentator not only put out a standard redneck line “why don’t you go back to your own country” but also made disparaging remarks against India. Haley did not respond, aware that this perhaps is just a beginning in a race that will be laced with many more below the belt hits. And Haley should know better: Biden, Kamala Harris and Democrats are not the only ones harping on racism in America.
Money matters
Presidential politics cost billions of dollars and obviously Haley would need to have deep pockets to make it to the finish line. She would need fat cat donors to bankroll a political effort that only gets trickier as the days roll by. It was not without good reason that Trump in 2016 picked Pence as his running mate knowing full well the weight of Christian Evangelicals. With Haley persistent questions are still being posed as to how “complete” her religious transformation has been from Sikhism since getting married in 1996. And with this comes nagging doubts on abortion, an issue that had its fair share of relevance in the mid terms of 2022.
Haley and the GOP would have realised by now that the way to stop Trump is not by adding numbers as 2016 showed as the determination of Presidential delegates varies from state to state. As Elaine Kamarck points out, “Taken together, they have a bias in favour of candidates who win by a small number of votes. In 2016, Donald Trump was able to win the Republican nomination because he was the plurality winner of a crowded field”. The mantra for serious candidates is staying power with smarts!
The writer has been a senior journalist in Washington DC for 14 years covering North America and the United Nations.