Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is fundraising in Newport Beach
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is in SoCal fundraising for her presidential run, and Tuesday she's hosting a $1,000 per person afternoon event in Newport Beach.
This is her first trip to Southern California since declaring her candidacy for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. Haley also held fundraisers in the last couple of days in Palos Verdes Estates and West Hollywood.
Campaigns are required to file their fundraising totals by July 15, a test of the viability of their campaigns and a factor for inclusion in the first debate of the 2024 campaign, set for Aug. 23 in Milwaukee.
The 51-year-old Haley announced her candidacy Feb. 14, declaring in a three-minute, 30-second video, "It's time for a new generation of leadership to rediscover fiscal responsibility, secure our border and strengthen our country, our pride and our purpose."
Haley has pledged to "veto any spending bill that doesn't take us back to pre-COVID levels ... put our nation back on track and unleash American energy," and to be "a president that's going to have the backs of moms and dads ... stop sending money to countries that hate us," specifically citing China, and have "no wokeness in the military."
If elected, Haley would be the nation's first president born in the 1970s, the first woman and the first of South Asian descent. Both her parents immigrated to the United States from India.
Haley graduated from Clemson University in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in accounting, worked for the waste management and recycling company FCR Corp., then joined her family's clothing business as its bookkeeper and chief financial officer.
Haley first ran for office in 2004, defeating state Rep. Larry Koon, who had served since 1975, in the Republican primary. She was unopposed in the general election, becoming the first Indian American to hold office in South Carolina.
Haley was elected governor in 2010, the first minority female governor in America and the third non-white governor elected by a Southern state, after Virginia's Douglas Wilder and Louisiana's Bobby Jindal. She was re-elected in 2014.
Haley is the first of two candidates for the Republican presidential nomination set to conduct fundraisers in Orange County this week. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott is set to conduct a $2,500 per person fundraising dinner Friday night in Laguna Niguel.
