Examining Nikki Haley’s Comments About Her Run for the Presidency

Nikki Haley, 2024 U.S. presidential candidate

Nikki Haley is running for president and her announcement was confident and bold, with specific focuses, some controversial. This article takes a brief look at three particular points within Haley’s communication that were reported on in The Guardian by Lauren Gambino.

“America is not past our prime,” Haley said. “It’s just that our politicians are past theirs.” To help remedy that national weakness she says she will pursue term limits for members of Congress and go so far as to push for “mental competency tests” for those leaders who are over the age of 75.

Haley has observed problems and also read and listened to the public’s and media’s concerns about elderly leaders possibly staying too long in office.

“I have heard very positive responses to Ambassador Haley's theme ‘A New Generation of Leadership,’” says Josh Wilson, a former communications director in the U.S. House of Representatives and now a senior publicist at Otter PR, a national public relations firm.

“After President Trump and now President Biden, both in their 70s, Americans seem ready for younger leadership. Rhetoric that touches on term limits for Congress is always effective with many from both parties who are fed up with the longevity of our politicians.”

It’s important, Wilson points out, to remember something about this communication.

“It is, however, just rhetoric. Constitutionally, no president can institute term limits from the White House. This would require congressional action and a constitutional amendment which is highly unlikely. As for mental competency tests, this is also political rhetoric aimed at Haley's base,” he says.

“Voters get to judge candidates on a number of things during elections and whether or not they believe a candidate is mentally competent for the job is one of them. Requiring tests for candidates based on age would likely not pass legal scrutiny,” Wilson adds.

Haley winning the presidency would require something special, an accomplishment that Hillary Clinton almost achieved in the 2016 presidential election won by Donald Trump, a woman becoming the first president of the United States. Success this time would mean Americans would be, “Sending a tough-as nails-woman to the White House.”

Whether Haley is planting a seed that inspires conviction of support in what has been a male-only position remains to be seen. Wilson says she’s being honest though about who she is and what she’s done in government.

“Ambassador Haley has always had a tough-as-nails persona about her,” he says. “Whether it was during her time as governor of South Carolina where she took on the Confederate Flag and stopped its flying over state buildings or her tenure as UN Ambassador where she very openly called out countries like Iran and Russia for human rights violations.”

Josh Wilson is a senior publicist at Otter PR

Yet the focus on gender as being important or helpful, Wilson isn’t so sure that will lead to a groundswell of passionate supporters and an advantage at polls.

“Playing the woman card,” he says, using a phrase that critics often use, “will of course help her with female voters but it isn't always the best approach for winning over the male electorate.”

It’s much smarter, Wilson says, for her to focus on her stronger point.

“Haley would be better off sticking to the tough-as-nails argument and dropping the gender talk.”

Haley’s message to her rivals — “May the best woman win” could be communicating that she will win, or maybe any woman will.

“More important than her ‘May the best woman win,’ comment is her indication that she intends to be the first Republican presidential candidate to win the popular vote again,” Wilson says.

“I imagine that Haley will always make small gender-related comments as many female candidates on the national stage do,” he adds, explaining that “We have yet to elect a female president so there is still a historical element that comes into play.”

Yet despite those comments in her announcement communication, Wilson says that is really only a small part of Haley’s candidacy and how she will speak to the public.

“Haley has a strong record and I don't doubt that she will always lead with policy instead of gender.”

Source: Josh Wilson is a senior Publicist at Otter PR and has more than a decade of public relations and political experience.

He served former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad and as a communications director, on both sides of the aisle, in the U.S. House of Representatives. Wilson holds a bachelor's degree in political communication from the University of Northern Iowa.