Can Nikki Haley pull off the impossible again?
It is no secret that women are often pushed to the side when discussing the American electoral system. Simultaneously, we see around the globe that the United States seems to be falling behind in our positions as the leaders of the free world.
Many democracies, such as Israel or the United Kingdom, started to elect female politicians in the 1970s to high profile government positions.
All the while, every female presidential bid in the United States, from a third or main party, has ended in failure. 2024 serves a distinctly unique opportunity for the American electorate, unlike anytime before.
On February 14th 2023, Republican Nikki Haley, Former Ambassador and Governor of South Carolina, announced her candidacy to seek the GOP nomination for president. When she announced, many said that her campaign would never take off.
According to the National Morning Consult Polling Center, one month after her campaign announcement, Haley was polling at an average of 6 percent. With such low numbers following an anticipated campaign launch, it seemed that the momentum had suspended. Soon after this, we saw the true nature of who the former governor truly was and is today.
In her tenure working in state government for South Carolina, Nikki Haley was always seen as an outsider or an underdog. During her first ever election, she chose to run against a 30 year incumbent in the state legislature, a daring political suicide mission. At the end of the GOP primary, she beat her incumbent legislator by 10 percent, and was unopposed in two future elections.
During her third legislative election in 2008, she beat her opponent with 87 percent of the vote, reinforcing her popularity in the district. Haley became the first Indian American elected to the South Carolina House, and has not shied away from other election firsts.
In 2010, again, Nikki announced her plans to run for governor. She ran against 3 popular figures. An Attorney General, Congressman, and Senator. When she entered the race she had only 3 percent of the vote according to Real Clear Politics polling. Yet again months later, she still won, becoming the first women minority Governor in the country.
In one four year term, Governor Haley recreated the state's economy to be small business focused, lowered taxes across the board on individuals, and helped reform the state's education system to shift funding to schools in need of dire structural and curriculum improvement. The governor made tremendous strides, leading to her 14 point re-election bid in 2014. With such progress still comes setbacks.
On June 17th of 2015, Nikki Haley would be faced with one of the hardest challenges for any governor in modern history. A white nationalist shooter went to a prayer session at a predominantly black church, and after sitting in on a session, indiscriminately shot parishioners. 9 people were shot and killed during the tragedy, and South Carolina was in a state of shock and mourning.
Simultaneously, riots were occurring in Georgia for a police involved shooting of an unarmed Black man. Nikki Haley was faced with the utmost discontent during this volatile time period of her governorship.
Haley, over the span of under a month, got both two thirds support in the state Senate and State House of Representatives to remove the Confederate flag in the statehouse of the state which first seceded from the Union.
Her record breaking accomplishments always came after criticism from skeptics, people who often said the impossible was just that, impossible. The fact that such resilience ensues makes us wonder, can Nikki Haley do it again? Can she beat the odds, win the primaries, win the generals, and become the first female president?
The only tentative piece of advice we should all take from the story of Nikki Haley is this: She is a fighter, and she is often underestimated, but she has never been one to accept the limits of what is and isn't possible.
Over the span of 13 years, she went from being a State House Representative to the United Nations Ambassador for the United States. This miracle of a story serves as an example to what the true soul of this country displays to be.
Daughter of immigrants, and a woman in politics, she has always broken the “glass ceiling” for women in this country. Will we as a nation come out of our shells and give her a chance? We'll have to see today in Iowa, and truly let democracy decide if we are ready for a new direction as America.
By Austin DeLorme
