Nikki Haley said Wednesday that she will be voting for Donald Trump in the general election, a notable show of support given their intense and often personal rivalry during the Republican primary calendar.
But Haley also made it clear that she feels Trump has work to do to win over voters who supported her during the course of the primary campaign and continue to cast votes for her in ongoing primary contests.
“I will be voting for Trump,” Haley, Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, said during an event at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
FILE – Republican presidential candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks at a campaign event in Forth Worth, Texas, March 4, 2024. Haley is huddling next week with donors who supported her now-shuttered Republican presidential campaign. A person with knowledge of her plans says the former South Carolina governor is appearing Monday, May 13, and Tuesday, with about 100 donors in Charleston, S.C.
“Having said that, I stand by what I said in my suspension speech,” Haley added. “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 that.”
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The comments in her first public speech since leaving the race are another signal of the GOP’s virtually complete consolidation of support behind Trump, even from those who have labeled him a threat in the past.
Haley shuttered her own bid for the GOP nomination two months ago but did not immediately endorse Trump, having accused him of causing chaos and disregarding the importance of U.S. alliances abroad as well as questioning whether Trump, 77, was too old to be president again.
Trump, in turn, repeatedly mocked her with the nickname “Birdbrain,” though he curtailed those attacks after securing enough delegates in March to become the presumptive Republican nominee.
Trump’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Haley’s announcement.
President Joe Biden’s campaign, meanwhile, has been working to win over her supporters, whom they view as true swing voters. Biden’s team is quietly organizing a Republicans for Biden group, which will eventually include dedicated staff and focus on the hundreds of thousands of Haley voters in each battleground state, according to people familiar with the plans but not authorized to discuss them publicly.
But Haley made several criticisms of Biden’s foreign policy and handling of the U.S.-Mexico border in her speech Wednesday at the Hudson Institute, a conservative Washington think tank she recently joined as she reemerges in the political realm.
Earlier this month, Haley huddled in South Carolina with some of her donors, an event characterized as a “thank you” to her top supporters and not a discussion about Haley’s future political plans or intended to push her backers toward any other candidate.
If she runs for president again, Haley will likely need to win over former Trump supporters in a Republican primary. But her support for him now risks offending moderates and anti-Trump conservatives.
Photos: Nikki Haley through the years
Nikki Haley takes the oath as Governor of South Carolina Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011, at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. Chief Justice Jean Toal , left, administers the oath of office as Haley’s husband Michael and children Rena and Nalin join her at the podium. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
From left to right, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Republican presidential candidate former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney and his wife Ann Romney, shake hands with supporters during a rally at Boiling Springs Fire Station, Friday, Dec. 16, 2011, in Greenville, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, right, speaks, as Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney looks on during a town hall meeting at Memminger Auditorium, Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in Charleston, S.C. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley signs a bill into law as former South Carolina governors and officials look on Thursday, July 9, 2015, at the Statehouse in Columbia, S.C. The law enables the removal of the Confederate flag from the Statehouse grounds more than 50 years after the rebel banner was raised to protest the civil rights movement. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley stands behind the podium for a test in front of a picture display of Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, in the Tampa Bay Times Forum at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., on Sunday, Aug. 26, 2012. Armstrong died Saturday. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, left, comforts her son, Nalin, 10, and her daughter, Rena, 14, as her husband, Capt. Michael Haley, right, gets ready for a deployment ceremony for the South Carolina Army National Guard 3/49 Agribusiness Development Team at McCrady Training Center, Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, at Ft. Jackson, S.C. The deployment is scheduled for a year including one month of training in Indiana prior to leaving for Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Rainier Ehrhardt)
Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., stands with, from second from left, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Rep. Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., during a rally, Friday, Feb. 19, 2016, in Columbia, S.C. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
UN Ambassador-designate, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, accompanied by her husband Michael, left, prepares to testify on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2017, at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Vice President Mike Pence administers the oath of office to U.S. Ambassador to the UN, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017, in the Vice Presidential Ceremonial Office in the Eisenhower Executive Office building on the White House complex in Washington. Holding the bible is Haley staffer Rebecca Schimsa. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 28, 2017, before the House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing: ‘Advancing U.S. Interests at the United Nations’. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
British Ambassador to the United Nations Matthew Rycroft, left, and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley vote during a Security Council meeting on a new sanctions resolution that would increase economic pressure on North Korea to return to negotiations on its missile program, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2017 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)
Former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, left, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, center, and former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice participate in a panel discussion at a forum sponsored by the George W. Bush Institute in New York, Thursday, Oct. 19, 2017. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks at the U.N. General Assembly, Thursday, Dec. 21, 2017, at United Nations headquarters. President Donald Trump’s threat to cut off U.S. funding to countries that oppose his decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital has raised the stakes in Thursday’s U.N. vote and sparked criticism of his tactics, with one Muslim group calling it bullying or blackmail. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley talks with Chinese deputy ambassador Wu Haitao, Friday, Dec. 22, 2017, at United Nations headquarters. The council is to vote on proposed new sanctions against North Korea, including sharply lower limits on its refined oil imports, the return home of all North Koreans working overseas within 12 months, and a crackdown on the country’s shipping. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)
President Donald Trump talks to Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, at the United Nations General Assembly, Monday, Sept. 24, 2018, at U.N. Headquarters. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump meets with outgoing U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 9, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Former Ambassador to the U.N Nikki Haley speaks at the 2019 American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) policy conference, at Washington Convention Center, in Washington, Monday, March 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during the Republican National Convention from the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium in Washington, Monday, Aug. 24, 2020. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, left, cheers alongside U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace during a campaign rally ahead of South Carolina’s GOP primary elections, Sunday, June 12, 2022, in Summerville, S.C. (AP Photo/Meg Kinnard)
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