Nikki Haley is in talks to bring her unenthusiastic message of support for Donald Trump to the campaign trail in an attempt to win over skeptical female voters, sources told The Bulwark.
Although the details haven’t been finalized, the Trump camp is apparently hoping his former ambassador to the United Nations will appear with him later this month at a town hall event moderated by a Fox News personality such as Sean Hannity.
Haley was Trump’s strongest challenger in the Republican primaries, raising millions of dollars for her campaign and earning 1 million votes in battleground states before dropping out and endorsing Trump the name of “unity” at the Republican National Convention in July.
“You don’t have to agree with Donald Trump 100% of the time to vote for him,” Haley, whom Trump nicknamed “Birdbrain” during the campaign, told the RNC crowd.
Since then, she has raised money and recorded a robocall for Trump but not appeared with him at campaign events, The Bulwark reported. That could now change, though some aides are skeptical the proposed joint town hall will take place.
It’s also not clear if Haley’s “if I have to” energy would be much of a boon for the Republican presidential candidate.
“You’re not going to hear me say glowing things about Donald Trump’s personality,” the former South Carolina governor said on the first episode of her Siriux XM radio show in late September.
The latest polling shows Vice President Kamala Harris leading Trump by 16 points among female voters, with more women now trusting Harris not just on abortion but also on economic issues such as addressing inflation and bringing down the cost of living.
Haley has previously chastised Trump and his surrogates for calling Harris dumb and insulting female voters’ concerns about the deadly state abortion bans enacted after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“Are you trying to lose the election?” she wrote on X after Ohio’s Republican Senate candidate Bernie Moreno said it was “crazy” for women—especially women over 50—to consider abortion an important issue.
As for Trump’s personal insults against her, “I have not forgotten what he said about me… But politics is not for thin-skinned people,” Haley said on her Sirius show.
