As the Republican governor of South Carolina in 2015, Nikki Haley stood shoulder to shoulder with political leaders from across the state to call for the removal of the Confederate flag from the statehouse grounds. Days before, an avowed white supremacist who posed with the flag in photographs massacred nine Black parishioners at a church in Charleston.
It was a defining moment for the governor, one that earned her national attention and cemented her status as a Republican rising star. On Tuesday, Haley, 51, officially entered the race for president, becoming the first and so far only major Republican challenger to former president Donald Trump.
Haley is staunchly conservative. As governor, she refused to expand Medicaid and signed into law a ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy that did not include exceptions for rape or incest. She also expanded concealed carry laws, despite calls for gun reform in the wake of the Charleston murders.
On her campaign website, Haley touts her role in pushing Trump to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal as well as her support for his decision to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The episode underscored the fine line Haley is attempting to walk as she charges into a competition already shaped by cultural fights over race and gender.
Though Haley has spoken about the discrimination she and her family faced as an immigrant family in the south, she rejects the notion that systemic racism exists in the US.
As she navigates the nascent Republican field, Haley is also contending with her past statements about the former president and her chief primary rival.
Haley previously pledged she would not run if Trump was a candidate. But Trump said recently that Haley informed him that she was considering running and he encouraged her to do it.
