Rumor has it that former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley is gearing up to announce her official 2024 presidential bid.
According to South Carolina’s Post and Courier, Haley is reportedly going to make her announcement on February 15.
A source close to Haley said that she has already sent her supporters an outline of her plans on Wednesday, along with an invitation for a “special announcement” that will take place at The Shed Downtown at the Charleston Visitor Center in downtown Charleston where she will be expected to put her White House aspirations into motion.
Haley will be the second Republican to enter the race and the first to challenge former President Trump, who announced his plans to run again in November.
This comes weeks after Haley told Fox News’s Bret Baier that she believes she could be the leader to push America into a “new direction” and a “new generation” to “take our country back.”
However, in 2021, the Republican said that she wouldn’t pursue a White House run if Trump announced his third presidential bid.
“I would not run if President Trump ran, and I would talk to him about it,” Haley said, adding “that’s something we’ll have a conversation about at some point if that decision is something that has to be made.”
Trump and Haley did have that conservation, however. During Trump’s rally in South Carolina over the weekend, the former president said that Haley had called him to talk about a possible candidacy, which Trump said he “encouraged.”
“I talked to her for a little while. I said, ‘look, you know, go by your heart if you want to run,” Trump said, adding “she called me and said she’d like to consider it, and I said you should do it.”
Haley previously said that her interest in a political career came after attending an event that included Hilary Clinton. Saying that although she does not agree with Clinton’s policies, Haley felt inspired that women should “dare to compete” in the political world that has been long overrun by men.