14 February 2023 , 16:08
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The first major challenger to Donald Trump's bid to lead the Republican Party into the 2024 election has announced her intention to run.
Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and United Nations ambassador, announced her candidacy for president on Tuesday.
This is a turn-around for the ex-Trump Cabinet official, who said two years ago that she wouldn't challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024.
She changed her mind in recent months, citing, among other things, the country's economic troubles and the need for "generational change", a nod to the 76-year-old Trump's age and Biden's 80 years.
Haley currently sits in fourth place behind Biden, Florida governor Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump as the bookies' favourite to win the 2024 election.
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Nikki Haley was a critic of Donald Trump before joining his administration (Evan Vucci/AP/REX/Shutterstock)She is an avowed pro-lifer supporting legal restrictions on abortions.
She has stated: "I'm not pro-life because the Republican Party tells me, I'm pro-life because all of us have had experiences of what it means to have one of these special little ones in our life."
Haley has been on the edge of large culture war issues unlike Ron DeSantis, another likely contender, who has waded in on every issue.
As governor, Haley said she would not support a law to require transgender people to use the bathroom corresponding to their assigned sex at birth.
She said at the time: "These are not instances that... y'all haven't reported on anything. I haven't heard anything that's come to my office.
Haley speaks during a news briefing at the White House during the Trump presidency (Carolyn Kaster/AP/REX/Shutterstock)"So when I look at South Carolina, we look at our situations, we're not hearing of anybody's religious liberties that are being violated, and we're, again, not hearing any citizens that feel like they are being violated in terms of freedoms."
Pre 2015 Haley supported flying of the Confederate Flag outside the South Carolina Capitol but changed her views following the Charleston church shooting, where white-supremacist Dylann Roof murdered African Americans.
Pictures of him later surfaced online holding weapons and posing in front of Confederate Flags.
Visiting "Hannity" at FOX Studios on January 20, 2023 (Getty Images)Haley later urged prosecutors to seek the death penalty against Roof, something he avoided by admitting guilt.
Haley was born Nimrata Nikki Randhawa and is the daughter of immigrants from Amritsar District, Punjab, India.
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Nikki married her husband Michael Haley in 1996 in both a Sikh and a Methodist wedding. They share a daughter Rena and son Nalin.
The year after her marriage, Nikki converted to Christianity although she does attend some Sikh services occasionally.