Nikki Haley's next move is going to a think tank after becoming major Trump critic
(WASHINGTON) — Nikki Haley has been tapped to be a chair at the Hudson Institute conservative think tank, according to a statement from the group Monday morning, marking the first major move for the former 2024 Republican presidential candidate since she left the race.
“When our policymakers fail to call out our enemies or acknowledge the importance of our alliances, the world is less safe. That is why Hudson’s work is so critical,” Haley, who previously received the group’s Hudson’s Global Leadership Award, said in a statement.
“I look forward to partnering with them to defend the principles that make America the greatest country in the world,” Haley said.
She will be the Walter P. Stern chair, named for the group’s former chairman. Hudson’s board chair, Sarah May Stern, said in her own statement that Haley is “courageous and insightful.”
It remains unclear, however, to what extent Haley will weigh in on the 2024 presidential race — or not.
A former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador, she was the last major candidate to challenge former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination, which he ultimately won.
By the end of Haley’s primary campaign, she had also become one of Trump’s most vocal critics within the party — something she had avoided earlier in the race.
And though he triumphed in almost every contest, Haley did win two primaries, in Vermont and Washington, D.C. She often touted the argument that Trump would not be able to unify the party and win a general election because a notable minority of Republicans continued to vote for her.
Haley didn’t endorse Trump when she ended her campaign in early March.
“I have always been a conservative Republican and always supported the Republican nominee,” Haley said then. “But on this question, as she did on so many others, Margaret Thatcher provided some good advice when she said, ‘Never just follow the crowd. Always make up your own mind.'”
“It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it, who did not support it,” she added. “And I hope he does that. At its best politics is about bringing people into your cause, not turning them away. And our conservative cause badly needs more people.”
ABC News’ Hannah Demissie and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
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