But months after her own campaign ended, the former governor of South Carolina has a prime-time speaking slot at the Republican National Convention, speaking Tuesday night after last week having released the delegates she won during the GOP primary and encouraging them to support Trump, calling it “a time for Republican unity.”
The late addition of Haley to the schedule and the focus on party unity comes as Republicans are trying to rally around Trump, capitalizing on a brutal stretch of headlines where Democrats’ concerns over President Biden’s mental fitness has dominated news coverage. That call for unity was put into even clearer focus after the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday.
Haley was the first major rival to officially challenge Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination and drew support from skeptical Republicans and “never Trump” voters in early nominating states. When she bowed out of the presidential race in March after losing all but two nominating contests, Haley signaled that she was taking a step back from politics. But she said she would “not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.” At that time, she did not endorse Trump, but called on him to earn the backing of the legions of GOP and independent voters who wanted to see her as the nominee.
Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita downplayed divisions within the party at a Georgetown Institute of Politics event Monday, saying “it’s such a load of crap.”
He said most Haley voters were Democrat-leaning independents, and claimed that the majority of her support came from unaffiliated voters in open primary states. “We don’t have a problem with Republican voters,” he said.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who endorsed Haley’s primary bid, said her criticism of Trump is “in the past.”
“Politics is a blood sport. We’re on the team now and in light of what happened, especially, we’ve got to get this man elected so security can be brought back to the country.”
Would Republicans boo her on the stage Tuesday? “If they boo her, it is what it is,” Norman said. “But Nikki will have a smile on her face, she’ll have an uplifting message, whatever happens.”
Haley was the only woman in the 2024 Republican presidential race and was the last rival standing against Trump before he clinched the GOP nomination. Campaigning on her foreign policy experience and traditional conservative beliefs while making the case that it was time for a new generation of leaders to helm the GOP, she carefully calibrated her criticism of Trump throughout the race. Initially, she tried to avoid alienating his fervent supporters. But ultimately she argued that the nation needed a younger, more reliable and less self-absorbed commander in chief and cast herself as a formidable alternative.
Haley — who was a little-known figure when she first ran for governor in 2010 and relished defeating the “old boys” network in her state — wore a T-shirt on the campaign trail that said “Underestimate me. That’ll be fun.” She focused many of her attacks on Vice President Harris, predicting that Biden would not be the nominee long before the Democratic panic over his debate performance and conversations about him stepping aside became mainstream in recent weeks.
Trump was also punishing in his criticisms of Haley during the heat of their primary rivalry, frequently calling her “birdbrain” and telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that she was “overly ambitious.” He later warned that anyone who contributed to her campaign “will be permanently banned from the MAGA [Make America Great Again] camp.” And in early May, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Haley “was not under consideration for the V.P. slot” but that he wished her well.
But he softened his tone later that month after Haley said she would vote for him in November, while she maintained that he “has not been perfect” on his policies.
In an interview with News 12 New York later that month, in May, he called Haley a “very capable person” and said she would be “on our team in some form, absolutely.”
Haley had announced she would be voting for Trump in her first public appearance after ending her campaign in May, during a conversation at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank where she was named the organization’s Walter P. Stern chair.
She did not mention Trump beyond her intention to vote for him, focusing her remarks on repeatedly attacking Biden’s positions on foreign policy.
“I will be voting for Trump. Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech,” she said at the Hudson Institute, before reiterating that Trump needed to reach out to her voters: “Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does.”
Henry Barbour, an RNC member from Mississippi who supported Haley in the primary and is now supporting Trump, said that Trump is rising to the moment of unifying the party, particularly after the assassination attempt.
“This is what the American people want. They want somebody that wants to unify them,” Barbour said. “It is a great development not only politically but just for the good of the country.”
Haley won Vermont, and nine of the state’s delegates. But on the convention floor Monday evening, delegate Deb Billado, the state’s former GOP chair, said the delegation was “100 percent Trump.”
She said she was surprised her state went for Haley, but noted that “we fixed that,” in reference to the delegate slate casting all its voters for Trump.
“I think we’d like to be inclusive, and have her as part of the party, and she is,” Billado added. “But we were always for Trump.”
New Hampshire State Sen. Bill Gannon, who endorsed Haley and was one of the delegates assigned to vote for her until she released them, is now backing Trump. Haley placed second in the state, where she also earned the endorsement of Gov. Chris Sununu, and won nine delegates.
“We’re Republicans. She’s not trying to bind us to just her, she wants the party to do well,” Gannon said in an interview on the convention floor. He noted the Trump delegates within the New Hampshire delegation had “made us feel very warm and welcome here.”
“She’s not someone who is gonna disappear, because the people like her, there’s a place for her,” he said. “It’s not the end for Nikki Haley. It’s just the beginning. She’s very young, the party is growing, going through growth spurts, and I think there will be a place for her in the future.”
Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.
