Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley kicked off her midterm campaigning push during her acceptance speech for the Nathan Hale Patriot Award on Thursday.
Haley, a former Republican governor of South Carolina and a potential presidential candidate in 2024, targeted President Joe Biden and Democrats, but urged Republicans not to get complacent ahead of the midterms. The Republican Society at The Citadel military college in South Carolina grants the award annually, and the event is a common stomping ground for would-be Republican presidential candidates.
“In Washington, D.C., we have a President and a Congress who are leading the greatest nation in history toward ruin,” she told the audience. “They’re crippling our economy, crushing our families, endangering our streets, erasing our borders and withdrawing from the world.”
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 30: U.S. President Joe Biden delivers remarks before signing a series of veteran-related bills at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on November 30, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“Joe Biden and today’s Democratic Party doesn’t even believe in America,” she continued. “And they’re not alone. The media, the education establishment, CEOs from Wall Street to Silicon Valley —They all say our country is racist and rotten to the core. They’re corrupting the minds of the next generation. They’re throwing away our national principles and putting new ones in place. For them, freedom, equality, opportunity and the rule of law are out.”
The Republican Society grants the award and accompanying replica Revolutionary War musket annually, and Haley is the first woman to receive it. Former President Donald Trump received his award prior to being elected president in 2015, and former Vice President Mike Pence received the award in 2020. (RELATED: Nikki Haley: Liberal Media ‘Can’t Stand It When A Brown Republican’ Claims America Isn’t Racist)
Haley enjoys a unique position among potential Republican presidential candidates in 2024. Haley served as Trump’s ambassador to the U.N. for much of his administration, resigning amicably in late 2018. Having done so, she holds reasonable legitimacy among Trump’s base even while dodging any connection to Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Haley has distanced herself from Trump in the wake of 2020, and condemned the the pro-Trump storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. She has faced some jabs from the former president as a result.
South Carolina, the first Southern state to vote in Republican primaries, is a common stomping ground for would-be Republican presidential candidates. She also has plans to travel the country to gin up Republican support ahead of the 2022 midterms. She already campaigned for Republican Virginia gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin, whose victory last month Haley called “a bad day for Joe Biden.”
“The Republican Party was made for this moment,” she said near the end of her speech. “We’re the only ones who can unite our country. Who can rescue our cities from anarchy and anger. Who can move America forward and upward. We are the only ones who can. And we are the ones who will – in 2022 and 2024.”
Haley’s decision on 2024 may hinge on Trump’s own decision to run, however. She told reporters in April that she would bow out of any race and support Trump should he decide to run again.
