Former SC governor, Trump ally Nikki Haley coming to Myrtle Beach as she runs for president

Former South Carolina governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley will be in Myrtle Beach later this month for a rally, her campaign announced March 3.

Haley, 51, will be at Horry-Georgetown Technical College for a 6 p.m. appearance on March 13 a month after launching her White House bid in Charleston.

Haley, elected governor in 2010, left her post as South Carolina’s leader in January 2017 when president Donald Trump named the Bamberg native his ambassador to the United Nations - a position she held for nearly a year that helped elevate her national profile.

The Palmetto State’s first female governor has never lost an election, but will have to challenge her former boss en route to the GOP nomination.

Haley previously said she wouldn’t seek America’s highest office if Trump opted to run again, but suggested at her Feb. 15 event the GOP’s string of losing the popular vote in seven of the last eight presidential elections that new leadership was needed.

“Our cause is right, but we have failed to win to the confidence of a majority of Americans,” Haley said. “Well, that ends today. If you’re tired of losing, then put your trust in a new generation.”

South Carolina’s cache as a key early-voting state in presidential primaries makes it a must-visit for would be commanders-in-chief.

Vice President Mike Pence made stops March 2 in North Charleston and Greenville’s Bob Jones University, though he’s yet to announce his future plans.

A January poll of 450 likely primary voters in South Carolina conducted for the Conservative Policy Research Network found Trump leads individual head-to-head matchups against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Haley and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C.

Trump also gets a 41% plurality of the support when respondents were asked who they would support if the field included the former president, DeSantis, Haley, Pence and Scott.

A Quinnipiac University Poll found Pence had a 27% favorable rating and a 46% unfavorable rating, with 23% saying they haven’t heard enough about him. The same poll reported Pence had 4% support among Republican voters around the country, trailing Trump, who had 42%, DeSantis with 36% and Haley with 5%.