Nikki Haley secured the support of Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, who praised her “tenacity” while warning the GOP it would be a “big mistake” to underestimate her. Haley officially launched her campaign last week after months of dismissing the idea and saying she would not run against Donald Trump. But she launched her courtship of the Iowa caucuses saying the time has come to “look forward” past her former boss to a “new generation” of Republicans.
Iowa is a pivotal state in the presidential election as its one of the early-voting states.
Governor Reynolds introduced Haley at her first event in the state at Urbandale, where she was met with a packed house.
Announcing her presence at the rally, Reynolds said: “Iowa is ready to be FIRST!
“So proud to introduce my friend @NikkiHaley tonight in Urbandale to kick off the Iowa Caucuses.”
During her introduction, she added: “I tell you, one mistake that most people make in challenging this lady right here is underestimating her. Big mistake.”
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Haley addressed the audience about her plan before opening the floor to questions from the audience, who challenged her on her appeal to move away from Trump despite the former president still counting on widespread support from voters.
She praised Trump for revolutionising the Republican Party but insisted the GOP now needed a new generation of leadership to secure the White House.
The former South Carolina Governor said: “President Trump is my friend. I think he was the right president at the right time. He came in. He broke the things that needed to be broken, and he fixed them.
“And I was proud to serve in his cabinet. But as dire of a situation as this is, as much as all the media and everybody wants to talk about the past, we need to leave the status quo in the past. We’ve got work to do. We’ve got to look forward.”
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She added: “And so what I’m telling you is we need to make sure that we’ve got the energy, the power and the ability to bring more people in that will see that our solutions are the right ones.”
Haley was the first leading Republican to throw her hat into the ring to challenge Donald Trump for the party nomination ahead of the 2024 election.
Others have signalled their intention to join the race, including former vice president Mike Pence who visited Iowa as Haley announced her campaign last week.
Fellow South Carolinian Tim Scott is also expected to pay a visit to the state in the coming weeks as he still mulls over a potential bid for the White House.
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But notably absent from the lineup, at least for now, is former President Trump himself.
Few of the White House hopefuls face the lofty expectations in Iowa that he does.
The former president finished a competitive second to devout social conservative Ted Cruz in 2016 and went on to carry the state twice, by healthy margins, as the Republican presidential nominee in the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Veteran Iowa Republican strategist Luke Martz told AP: “It is genuinely impossible for this guy to try to manage these expectations.
“They are enormous. They are self-made. I don’t see how anyone who is saying ‘I’m the guy’ can come in and even get even a second-place finish.|
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