Nikki Haley, the former two-term Governor of South Carolina and former US Ambassador to the United Nations, brings calmness to highly polarised national politics and is the only candidate to win over a major section of the Democrats without any compromise on the Republican principles and ideology, her close Indian American friends and major donors feel.
Haley, 51, is the only women Republican presidential aspirant to have qualified for GOP’s maiden 2024 primary debate to be held in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on August 23. Wednesday’s debate is unique in the sense that for the first time, two Indian Americans Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramaswamy would be in the history of a primary presidential debate from any political party.
The other GOP presidential aspirants who have qualified for the party’s primary debate on Wednesday being telecast by Fox News are former US president Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis; former vice president Mike Pence; South Carolina senator, Tim Scott; former Arkansas governor Asa Hutchinson; and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Trump on Monday announced that he would not be participating in the debate.
According to Real Clear Politics which keeps track of all the national polls Haley is currently ranked fifth in the average of national polls at 3.3 per cent. As expected, Trump leads the pack with 55.5 per cent followed by DeSantis (14.5), Ramaswamy (7.9) and Pence (5.2).
In a series of interviews over the past few days ahead of Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate, the Indian American friends and major donors of Haley said that the former governor of South Carolina brings calmness to the highly polarised nation and is the only candidate to win over a major section of the Democrats without any compromise on the Republican principles and ideology.
“We are ready. This is not the first time she’s run a race. All of us were there with her when she ran for Governor (of South Carolina). Everything once again comes back up full circle. Nikki, who? Why is she running? It’s very obvious to all of us that she’s running because she cares. She has passion, she has pride for the country, and she has the heart of a servant…She’s not entrenched in the political swamp of (Washington) DC. She is not part of that," her old-time friend from South Carolina Bhavna Vasudeva, a successful real estate agent, told.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed - PTI)