Nikki Haley will run against Donald Trump for the GOP nomination for Presidnt

SCREEN CAPTURE

Nikki Haley preempted her formal announcement with this Twitter video.

As a brown woman campaigning for the Republican nomination for President, Nikki Haley will stand out.

The Indian American former Ambassador to the UN is the first Republican woman of color to run for President.

She tipped off her candidacy Tuesday on a social media video, a day earlier than her anticipated formal announcement today in Charleston, South Carolina.  Echoing a theme used by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee in the GOP response to President Biden's State of the Union, Haley said “it’s time for a new generation of leadership” in Washington.

Although directed at Biden, who is 80-years old, it could also be the first line of distinction between her and 76-year old Donald Trump, the only other announced candidate for the GOP presidential nomination.

Haley has been a rising star in the GOP since she was governor of South Carolina. She garnered national attention when she boldly ordered that the Confederate flag be taken down from the Statehouse flagpole after the mass shooting of Black worshippers in Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston.

In 2020, she gave one of the better speeches at the GOP nominating convention. "This is personal for me," Haley said at the convention. "I am the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. They came to America and settled in a small southern town. My father wore a turban."

Next, she delivered perhaps the best line of the night and could be a bumper sticker in 2024. "My mother wore a sari. I was a brown girl in a black and white world," said Haley,  whose full name before she got married was Nimrata Nikki Randhawa.

Haley, 51, who was appointed as the US Ambassador to the UN by Trump, hit a similar note in her announcement video: “My mom would always say your job is not to focus on the differences, but the similarities,” she said. “And my parents reminded me and my siblings every day how blessed we were to live in America.”

“Republicans have lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. That has to change,” Haley continued in her announcement. “Joe Biden’s record is abysmal, but that shouldn’t come as a surprise. The Washington establishment has failed us over and over and over again.”

She is not the first Indian American to seek the GOP nomination for President. Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal unsuccessfully sought the nomination in 2016.

Although Haley is the first Republican to challenge Trump, she not the best known Repubilcan with presidential ambitions. Former Vice President Pence and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have higher national profiles and are expected to toss their hats in the ring.

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