FORMER US PRESIDENT Donald Trump looks to be steamrolling his way towards the Republican presidential nomination and only one opponent now stands in his way – former UN ambassador Nikki Hayley.

Trump won last week’s caucus in Iowa and opinion polls place him close to 20 points ahead of Haley heading into today’s primary in New Hampshire.

Haley has dedicated significant time and financial resources to New Hampshire, but a predicted Trump win might sew up his nomination.

Should Trump win in New Hampshire, he would be the first Republican presidential candidate to win in Iowa and New Hampshire since both states began leading the election calendar in 1976 — a clear sign of his continued grip on the party’s most loyal voters.

New Hampshire is seen as a more Haley-friendly electorate than any she will encounter further down the line and continuing in the race will be a tough sell without a win or very close defeat.

As Haley battles to remain in contention, we take a look at her career to date.

‘An outsider’

52-year-old Haley is the only woman in the Republican field for the presidential nominee and her campaign website describes her as an “outsider”.

Haley is the only person standing in the way of Donald Trump becoming the Republican nominee, after every other major candidate dropped out of the running. 

Before a primary took place, eight people withdrew from the race, including former vice-president Mike Pence and former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who declined to lend his support to another candidate.

After the first primary in Iowa last week, Vivek Ramaswamy dropped out of the race and endorsed Trump, and on Sunday Florida governor Ron DeSantis also pulled out of the running and lent his support to Trump. 

Haley was born Nimarata Nikki Randhawa in South Carolina to immigrant Sikh parents from Amritsar, India.

Her parents had first emigrated to Canada and later moved to South Carolina, where they were the only Indian-American family in the town.

She married Michael Haley in 1996 and converted to Christianity a year later, although she sometimes attends Sikh religious services.

Nikki Haley, center, leaves after praying at the Gurdwara Sis Ganj Sahib, a Sikh temple, in New Delhi, India, on 28 June, 2018 Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Last week, Trump mangled Haley’s birth name on his social media platform ‘Truth Social’ when he posted: “Nimbra doesn’t have what it takes.”

Trump also last week referred to Haley as “Nikki ‘Nimrada’ Haley”. 

He also used his social media platform to post an article from a right-wing outlet which falsely claimed that Haley is ineligible to be president because her parents were not US citizens when she was born.

Trump also used the “birther” conspiracy theory against Barack Obama.

Obama was born in Hawaii and Trump falsely claimed that Obama’s birth certificate was forged and that he was born in Kenya.

In 2016, Trump acknowledged that Obama was born in the United States, five years after first making the claim.

Haley has lived in the United States for her entire life.

When asked on Fox News about referring to Haley as “Nimrada”, Trump said he’s “very good” at coming up with nicknames and described his nicknames as a “very effective tool”.

He added: “You know, her name, wherever she may come from.”

Haley responded by labelling Trump as “insecure” and added: “I know President Trump well… That’s what he does when he feels threatened.”

Governor and UN ambassador

Her political career began in 2004 when she successfully ran for the South Carolina State House against a Republican who had held the seat for close to 30 years.

In winning this race, she became the first Indian-American to hold office in South Carolina.

From there, she successfully ran for governor of South Carolina in 2010 and was the country’s youngest governor at the time, aged 38.

Haley gained an endorsement for the role from Mitt Romney, who considered Haley for his vice-presidential running mate for his unsuccessful 2012 presidential campaign against Barack Obama.

File image from 2014 of Nikki Haley holding a campaign rally with Mitt Romney Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Haley was also floated as a potential running mate during Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but she told reporters at the time: “My plate is full and I am not interested in serving as vice president.”

While Haley declined to be Trump’s running mate, she was named by Trump as the United States ambassador to the United Nations in January 2017.

She held the position until October 2018 and her resignation from the post was said to have shocked colleagues at the UN.

In her resignation letter, Haley said that while she would be returning to the private sector, she expected that she would “speak out from time to time on important public policy matters”.

During her return to the private sector, she spent a year as a board member for Boeing.

Support for Israel

During her time as UN ambassador, she was a strong advocate for Israel.

In her opening speech to the UN in 2017, Haley said: “Nowhere has the UN’s failure been more consistent and more outrageous than in its bias against our close ally Israel.”

2018 image of Nikki Haley before a UN Security Council meeting regarding Gaza Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

In the same speech, she accused the UN of having a “long history of anti-Israel bias” and noted how she was the first governor to sign legislation banning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Haley finished her speech by saying: “The American people see the UN’s mistreatment of Israel… and they are fed up.”

On 6 December, 2017, then-president Trump announced that the United States would formally recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and that the American embassy would be moved from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

With the exception of the United States and Russia, no country recognises Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Shortly after Trump’s announcement, Egypt sponsored a resolution at the UN to void and reject Trump’s decision.

Haley warned that the United States would be “taking names” of countries that voted to reject Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

In a letter prior to the vote, Haley wrote: “As you consider your vote, I encourage you to know the president and the US take this vote personally.

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New Hampshire voters cast ballots in presidential primary as Trump aims to see off final rival Nikki Haley

“The president will be watching this vote carefully and has requested I report back on those who voted against us.”

At the UN we're always asked to do more & give more. So, when we make a decision, at the will of the American ppl, abt where to locate OUR embassy, we don't expect those we've helped to target us. On Thurs there'll be a vote criticizing our choice. The US will be taking names. pic.twitter.com/ZsusB8Hqt4

— Archive: Ambassador Nikki Haley (@AmbNikkiHaley) December 19, 2017

Only seven other countries voted alongside the United States and Israel: Guatemala; Honduras; Marshall Islands; Micronesia; Nauru; Palau; and Togo.

Haley would later travel to some of these countries to thank them for their support.

Presidential campaign

In July 2022, Haley teased a presidential campaign at a ‘Christians United for Israel’ event in Washington DC.

On 14 February, 2023, she formally entered the race.

The former Trump Cabinet official once said she would not challenge her former boss for the White House in 2024.

But she later changed her mind, citing the country’s economic troubles and the need for “generational change”, a nod to 77-year-old Trump’s age.

Haley has regularly boasted about her track record of defying political expectations, saying: “I’ve never lost an election, and I’m not going to start now.”

If elected president, Haley would be the nation’s first female president and the first US president of Indian descent.

While Trump is the heavy favourite to win the nomination, Haley has insisted that she is in the race for the long run.

“We can either do the whole thing that we’ve always done and live in that chaos world that we’ve had, or we can go forward with no drama, no vendettas and some results for the American people,” said Haley to voters in New Hampshire yesterday.

“This is a two-person race,” she added.

Haley and Trump are both hoping to capitalise on high-profile recent departures from the race.

Haley could get a lift from some supporters of Chris Christie, who campaigned around decrying Trump but ended his bid shortly before Iowa’s caucus last week.

However, Christie’s presidential bid gained little traction and any lift from his supporters might not go a long way to denting Trump’s lead. 

Meanwhile, Trump may be able to consolidate support from conservative voters who were supporting Ron DeSantis, who dropped his White House bid on Sunday.

Trump has also implied that Haley may drop out of the race should she lose heavily in New Hampshire.

Asked during an interview yesterday about Haley possibly abandoning her campaign after New Hampshire, the former president said he would never call on her to do that but added: “Maybe she’ll be dropping out Tuesday.”

-With additional reporting from Press Association