Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley has weighed in on the 2026 Republican primary race for governor in South Carolina, inserting herself into a high-octane campaign that could pique the interest of President Donald Trump.
Haley endorsed Congressman Ralph Norman, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who supported her run for the White House when she challenged the former president in 2024.
‘Ralph Norman is a strong conservative, a principled leader, and a friend who helped me take on the Columbia establishment and never stopped,’ said Haley, herself a former governor of the Palmetto state.
‘Ralph will finally clean up Columbia, pass term limits, and prepare South Carolina for the next generation. When Ralph Norman is governor, it will once again be a great day in South Carolina’ Haley added.
What’s unknown is where Trump stands on Norman’s bid and whether Haley’s endorsement will provoke him to back an opposing candidate out of vengeance.
Norman’s track record as a fiscal hawk has at times landed him at odds with Trump.
During the Capitol Hill fight over Trump’s ‘big, beautiful’ budget bill Norman was a key holdout during the debate, before ultimately supporting the legislation.
After the bill’s passage, Norman promised to ‘keep pushing for fiscal sanity and a government that lives within its means.’
U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., introduces candidate former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley at a campaign event on Monday, Feb. 19, 2024, in Camden, S.C
Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley hugs United States Representative Ralph Norman (R-SC) as she arrives to announce her run for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination at a campaign event in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S. February 15, 2023
Nikki Haley, former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and South Carolina Governor participates in a discussion on Friday, May 16, 2025
Despite Haley’s eventual backing of Trump in the 2024 general election race, her forceful challenge to him has left their relationship damaged. Last November Trump said that his former ambassador to the United Nations would not be invited to serve during his second term.
It remains to be seen if Haley’s endorsement of Norman could hurt him with Trump, who is known to hold a grudge.
Norman joins a field of Lieutenant Governor Pamela Evette, Attorney General Alan Wilson and state Senator Josh Kimbrell already in the GOP primary contest, and Rep. Nancy Mace is expected to enter the race in the coming days.
Mace is already teasing her candidacy, taking to social media to post photos of her with Trump. Like Haley, Mace similarly had a complex relationship with the president.
After the January 6 Capitol riot, she declared his legacy was ‘wiped out,’ causing him to back her ouster in a Republican primary. But since Trump’s victory Mace has worked to cozy back up to the commander in chief.
FILE – Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., speaks during the Republican National Convention, July 17, 2024, in Milwaukee
U.S. President Donald Trump on July 28, 2025 in Turnberry, Scotland
‘I believe I may be forced to run for governor because I can’t watch my beautiful red state of South Carolina go woke. It’s gone woke over the last couple of years,’ Mace told FOX Report host Jon Scott.
Mace appeared at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics breakfast Friday, posting on X that trips to the Granite State is ‘where serious campaigns get started,’ a curious statement for someone about to launch a campaign for governor in a different state.
During her visit, Mace said while New Hampshire ‘picks presidents … maybe you can pick the next South Carolina governor too.’
Other conservatives aren’t waiting on Mace, instead flocking to Norman.
Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who represented North Carolina in Congress and former Heritage Foundation President Jim DeMint endorsed Norman’s bid.
As in every other Republican primary on the map, the biggest endorsement to land in the South Carolina governor’s race is the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.