MILWAUKEE — In the heat of the 2024 Republican primary, Nikki Haley said Donald Trump was “unhinged.” She said America couldn’t stand “four years of chaos, vendettas and drama.” She mocked his “temper tantrums” and questioned his mental fitness, seizing on a flub in which Trump repeatedly called Nancy Pelosi by Haley’s name.
But months after her own campaign ended, the former governor of South Carolina took to the stage at the Republican National Convention Tuesday night and called for party unity, specifically addressing voters who are still skeptical of Trump.
“My message to them is simple: You don’t have to agree with Trump 100 percent of the time to vote for him,” she said. “We agree on keeping America strong. We agree on keeping America safe. And we agree that Democrats have moved so far to the left that they’re putting our freedoms in danger. I’m here tonight because we have a country to save and a unified Republican Party is essential for saving her.”
The late addition of Haley to the convention schedule and the focus on party unity come as Republicans are trying to rally around Trump, capitalizing on a brutal stretch of headlines where Democrats’ concerns over President Biden’s mental fitness have dominated news coverage. That call for unity was put into even clearer focus after the attempted assassination of Trump at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. Haley said Tuesday evening that Trump had asked her to speak to the convention “in the name of unity” and that she was “happy” to accept.
Trump watched Haley intently from his box. He stood up and clapped when Haley reiterated that Trump has her “strong endorsement, period.” He smiled when she declared: “For the sake of our nation, we have to go with Donald Trump.”
Haley was the first major rival to officially challenge Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination and drew support from skeptical Republicans and “never Trump” voters in early nominating states. When she bowed out of the presidential race in March after losing all but two nominating contests, Haley signaled that she was taking a step back from politics. But she said she would “not stop using my voice for the things I believe in.” At that time, she did not endorse Trump, but called on him to earn the backing of the legions of GOP and independent voters who wanted to see her as the nominee.
Trump campaign manager Chris LaCivita downplayed divisions within the party at a Georgetown Institute of Politics event Monday, saying, “It’s such a load of crap.”
He said most Haley voters were Democratic-leaning independents, and claimed that the majority of her support came from unaffiliated voters in open primary states. “We don’t have a problem with Republican voters,” he said.
Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who endorsed Haley’s primary bid, said her criticism of Trump is “in the past.”
“Politics is a blood sport. We’re on the team now and in light of what happened, especially, we’ve got to get this man elected so security can be brought back to the country.”
As Haley took the stage, a convention volunteer instructed delegates in the Florida seats at the front of the floor to cheer when she endorsed Trump. They misunderstood, and immediately started cheering his name — before being told to hold off until she voiced her support.
Haley was mostly greeted with applause, though loud boos broke through from some sections of the arena. In the front row, a supporter shouted “yay Nikki, we love you,” and some could be heard shouting “thank you.”
When she said Trump had her complete support, the crowd began chanting his name. Kellie Randle, a Haley supporter from Tennessee, said the unity-focused speech was “exactly what we needed.”
“We need a unifier, we need to come together. Trump was not my first choice, but I’m so happy to see every single one of them now come together and stand behind,” she said. “They’re making me change my vote now to him.”
At a roundtable with reporters hosted by Bloomberg News on Tuesday afternoon, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley wouldn’t clarify the timeline of when Haley was extended an invitation to speak, but simply said he was very happy she was going to. Lara Trump, the RNC co-chair and Trump’s daughter-in-law, said it was up to the RNC and the campaign to reach out to voters who backed Haley but are hesitant to support Trump.
“Donald Trump is never going to change who he is,” Lara Trump said. “That’s something that some people love about him and some people don’t love about him and I understand that. … But I think it’s up to us as a campaign and as the RNC to reach out to some of those voters and say, ‘Hey, listen, at the end of the day, you don’t have to love the way he says everything. But look at how this affects your life.’”
Some, however, are skeptical that the unity message will resonate with many of Haley’s supporters, especially those who voted for her after she dropped out.
Craig Snyder, who runs the Haley Voters for Biden super PAC, observed that Haley has been moving toward reconciling with Trump, but he did not think that would be a “decisive factor” in what her voters will do in November.
“I really think that the people that voted for Haley … particularly those in the later primaries, including my own state of Pennsylvania, were really sending a pretty strong message that they consider themselves to be Republicans but not Trump Republicans,” Snyder said. “I don’t think that words about unity go nearly far enough to sort of win those people back.”
Haley was the only woman in the 2024 Republican presidential race and was the last rival standing against Trump before he clinched the GOP nomination. Campaigning on her foreign policy experience and traditional conservative beliefs while making the case that it was time for a new generation of leaders to helm the GOP, she carefully calibrated her criticism of Trump throughout the race. Initially, she tried to avoid alienating his fervent supporters. But ultimately, she argued that the nation needed a younger, more reliable and less self-absorbed commander in chief and cast herself as a formidable alternative.
Haley — who was a little-known figure when she first ran for governor in 2010 and relished defeating the “old boys” network in her state — wore a T-shirt on the campaign trail that said, “Underestimate me. That’ll be fun.” She focused many of her attacks on Vice President Harris, predicting that Biden would not be the nominee long before the Democratic panic over his debate performance and conversations about him stepping aside became mainstream in recent weeks.
Trump was also punishing in his criticisms of Haley during the heat of their primary rivalry, frequently calling her “birdbrain” and telling conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt that she was “overly ambitious.” He later warned that anyone who contributed to her campaign “will be permanently banned from the MAGA [Make America Great Again] camp.” And in early May, Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Haley “was not under consideration for the V.P. slot” but that he wished her well.
But he softened his tone later that month after Haley said she would vote for him in November, while she maintained that he “has not been perfect” on his policies.
In an interview with News 12 New York in late May, Trump called Haley a “very capable person” and said she would be “on our team in some form, absolutely.”
Haley had announced she would be voting for Trump in her first public appearance after ending her campaign in May, during a conversation in May at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank where she was named the organization’s Walter P. Stern chair.
She did not mention Trump beyond her intention to vote for him, focusing her remarks on repeatedly attacking Biden’s positions on foreign policy.
“I will be voting for Trump. Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech,” she said at the think tank, before reiterating that Trump needed to reach out to her voters: “Trump would be smart to reach out to the millions of people who voted for me and continue to support me and not assume that they’re just going to be with him. And I genuinely hope he does.”
Henry Barbour, an RNC member from Mississippi who supported Haley in the primary and is now supporting Trump, said that Trump is rising to the moment of unifying the party, particularly after the assassination attempt.
“This is what the American people want. They want somebody that wants to unify them,” Barbour said. “It is a great development not only politically but just for the good of the country.”
Haley won Vermont, and nine of the state’s delegates. But on the convention floor Monday evening, delegate Deb Billado, the state’s former GOP chair, said the delegation was “100 percent Trump.”
She said she was surprised her state went for Haley, but noted that “we fixed that,” in reference to the delegate slate casting all its voters for Trump.
“I think we’d like to be inclusive, and have her as part of the party, and she is,” Billado added. “But we were always for Trump.”
New Hampshire state Sen. Bill Gannon, who endorsed Haley and was one of the delegates assigned to vote for her until she released them, is now backing Trump. Haley placed second in the state, where she also earned the endorsement of Gov. Chris Sununu (R) and won nine delegates.
“We’re Republicans. She’s not trying to bind us to just her; she wants the party to do well,” Gannon said in an interview on the convention floor. He noted that the Trump delegates within the New Hampshire delegation had “made us feel very warm and welcome here.”
“She’s not someone who is going to disappear, because the people like her; there’s a place for her,” he said. “It’s not the end for Nikki Haley. It’s just the beginning. She’s very young, the party is growing, going through growth spurts, and I think there will be a place for her in the future.”
Isaac Arnsdorf contributed to this report.
