Former Trump UN ambassador Nikki Haley gears up for likely 2024 run for president

Singer privately told friends in Trump’s final year in office that Haley could be a strong contender for president, according to a person who overheard his remarks.

More recently, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman predicted on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Haley will be the Republican presidential nominee, according to Semafor.

Representatives for Gorman and Singer did not return requests for comment.

Haley recently hired political consultant Nachama Soloveichik to help lead her communications team if the former South Carolina governor jumps into the race, one of the people said. Soloveichik’s LinkedIn says she has experience working for retired Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s campaign as well as the Club for Growth, a conservative outside group.

Soloveichik is also listed as a partner at the political consulting firm ColdSpark, which received $405,000 during the 2022 election cycle from Haley’s PAC, according to data from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.

Haley also tapped Betsy Ankney, a former political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to run the PAC, according to Axios. Longtime Haley advisor Jon Lerner, will likely have leadership roles within a Haley presidential campaign, two of the people said.

Twitter pages for Soloveichik and Ankney both say that they’re on “Team Nikki Haley.”

Johnson, Ankney, Lerner and Soloveichik did not return requests for comment.

Haley has publicly hinted in two recent interviews with Fox News that she could be ready to run for president. “I think I can be that leader,” Haley said in one of them, while declining to explicitly announce a White House bid. She pointed to her experience as Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and previously as governor of South Carolina.

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/24/former-trump-un-ambassador-nikki-haley-gears-up-for-likely-2024-run-for-president.html