Nikki Haley will make the case for electing Trump in her convention speech
Haley intends to “address voters who are uncertain about voting for President Trump and make the case for why she is voting for him,” a person familiar with her speech told CNN. Haley’s speech is being written in consultation with the Trump campaign and approved by Republican convention officials, as all such addresses are.
Haley, who released her delegates last week and implored them to support Trump, was a late addition to the program. She was invited to appear onstage in Milwaukee only two days ago – the same day as the assassination attempt on Trump, which was followed by the former president’s call for themes of unity at the convention.
Tuesday’s speech continues a gradual easing of tensions between Haley and Trump after a bruising, yearlong campaign for the Republican presidential nomination, in which Haley urged GOP voters to back her to avoid the “chaos” that she said follows the former president.
After primary losses in New Hampshire and her home state of South Carolina, Haley defied calls to drop out and rally around Trump. Instead, she leaned harder into criticisms of the former president and his age. At campaign events, she frequently pointed out that polls suggested she would be more competitive than Trump against President Joe Biden in a general election matchup and warned that his legal troubles would dominate much of the campaign cycle.
When Haley did end her campaign in early March, the day after Super Tuesday, she did not endorse the former president as primary rivals such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis had done. (DeSantis, who dropped out after losing the Iowa caucuses, is also set to speak Tuesday.)
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the vote – those in our party and beyond it, who did not support him. And I hope he does that,” she said in her exit announcement.
But in May, Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, said she would vote for the former president, arguing that Biden would be worse for America.
And last week, shortly after she released her delegates to vote for Trump, her former rival said he would “take a look” at inviting her to speak at the convention.
“There was a lot of bad blood there,” Trump told Fox News radio last week. “She stayed too long. She was being soundly defeated at every place, but she just wouldn’t leave.”
Haley won less than 100 delegates, compared with the more than 2,200 who are bound to Trump, and she won just two primaries, in Vermont and Washington, DC. But in the weeks after dropping out, she continued to receive tens of thousands of votes in primaries, including in key battleground states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania. The Biden campaign has sought to reach Haley’s supporters through television and digital ads in hopes of reminding them of Trump’s insults aimed at their candidate.
The question now is whether the unity Republicans are projecting at their convention has extended to Haley voters. Some supporters think it will.
“The Nikki Haley voters will come around to Trump,” said Katon Dawson, a longtime Haley ally and former South Carolina Republican Party chairman. “It might take a while, but they’ll come.”
Dawson pointed to his own decision to back Trump and argued that, despite Haley’s past criticism of the former president, the country couldn’t handle another four years of Biden. He predicted the former governor would deliver a “vintage Haley” speech, focused on the future of the country while also striking a more conciliatory tone.
“She’s doing the right thing,” Dawson said of Haley speaking at the convention.
CNN’s Kate Sullivan contributed to this report.
In light of her past criticisms and primary losses, Nikki Haley surprisingly decided to support President Trump during the 2020 election, stating that a second term for Joe Biden would be detrimental for the country. With the approval of the Trump campaign and Republican convention officials, Haley is set to deliver a speech at the convention, aiming to persuade uncertain voters to back the former president, demonstrating an effort to mend their political differences.
