How Nikki Haley went from tea-party favorite to governor to Trump 2024 challenge

“The socialist left sees an opportunity to rewrite history," she said in a video announcement. “China and Russia are on the march. They all think we can be bullied. Kicked around. You should know this about me: I don’t put up with bullies. And when you kick back, it hurts them more if you’re wearing heels."

References to high heels have long been a staple in political speeches for Ms. Haley, 51 years old, a former United Nations ambassador in the Trump administration.

As of now, Ms. Haley is the only woman in the field as Republicans weigh whether to pick a new standard-bearer who might lure some voters who dislike the former president. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem also may enter the GOP race this spring.

Ms. Haley’s entry extends an already complicated relationship with her former boss, who launched his third consecutive White House bid in November and remains the party’s dominant figure even after disappointing GOP results in the past three national elections.

In early 2016, Ms. Haley said she was embarrassed by Mr. Trump and criticized his reluctance to condemn white supremacists. Less than a year later, she agreed to join his cabinet and served as a validator for him on both the domestic and global stages.

In her video, released a day before her planned formal campaign announcement speech in Charleston, S.C., Ms. Haley called for a “new generation of leadership."

It seemed to be a reference to the age of some of the top candidates expected to be in the race. Mr. Trump is 76, while President Biden, who is expected to make a formal announcement in March or April about seeking the Democratic nomination, is 80.

Born in South Carolina as the child of Indian immigrants, Ms. Haley studied accounting at Clemson University and helped run her family’s luxury clothing and goods company before entering into politics.

Ms. Haley often points out that she has never lost a race in South Carolina. She has long been mentioned as a potential national candidate, in part because her biography could provide a compelling narrative for a party that has struggled to attract support from minority groups.

Ms. Haley’s public career has spanned the policy and political divides of the Republican Party. She has operated as both an outsider and an insider.

In her first bid for governor, she was a Tea Party-aligned candidate who lost the general election endorsement of the South Carolina Chamber of Commerce to a Democrat. The group would have traditionally backed someone like Ms. Haley, who promoted lower taxes and smaller government, but the voting members found her views too confrontational and inflexible.

Once governor, she signed legislation that gave subsidies to Boeing Co., a move in conflict with the Tea Party movement.

In the 2016 GOP presidential primary, she initially endorsed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, before backing Texas Sen. Ted Cruz after Mr. Rubio was out of the race.

After resigning her U.N. post in October 2018, Ms. Haley returned to South Carolina and joined the board of directors at Boeing, which opened a production facility in North Charleston during her administration.

She also spent time on the speaking circuit, attracting fees reportedly as high as $200,000. More recently, Ms. Haley has traveled the nation to promote Republican candidates, make friends in early nominating states and build her own fundraising network.

Ms. Haley, who was elected governor in 2010 and held the office for six years after serving in the state’s legislature, has disagreed with Mr. Trump on the outcome of the 2020 election, which the former president falsely asserts was stolen from him.

“There was fraud in the election, but I don’t think that the numbers were so big that it swayed the vote in the wrong direction," she told The Wall Street Journal in October 2021.

Her approach to navigating Mr. Trump has varied over time. She was sharply critical of him during an appearance before the Republican National Committee just after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, saying his actions would be “judged harshly by history."

Those remarks angered some Republicans loyal to Mr. Trump, and Ms. Haley softened her approach. She said in April 2021 that she wouldn’t embark on a 2024 bid if he decided to run again.

Asked about the reversal in a recent Fox News interview, Ms. Haley said that she had made the comments about not challenging Mr. Trump before Mr. Biden withdrew U.S. troops from Afghanistan and made other moves she disagreed with, heightening the stakes for 2024.

Ms. Haley praised the former president in an interview with the Journal in the fall of 2021 and said he had left a “strong legacy" from his administration. “He has the ability to get strong people elected, and he has the ability to move the ball, and I hope that he continues to do that," she said. “We need him in the Republican Party. I don’t want us to go back to the days before Trump."

After her Charleston event Wednesday, Ms. Haley is set to travel in the coming days to Iowa and New Hampshire, the two states that will start the GOP nomination balloting in about a year.

South Carolina will be the third state to weigh in on the Republican race and Ms. Haley could find herself competing there against a fellow state resident, Sen. Tim Scott. He is contemplating his own White House bid and will appear Thursday in his home state at a county GOP dinner celebrating Black History Month, before traveling to Iowa the following week.

“It’s going to get confusing," said Katon Dawson, a former state Republican Party chairman who is backing Ms. Haley. “They are both very popular politicians here."

Ms. Haley appointed Mr. Scott to the Senate in 2012 after Sen. Jim DeMint resigned in the midst of an unfinished term. Both she and Mr. Scott, if he decides to run, would face high expectations in South Carolina’s primary and anything short of a win could be viewed as a loss.

Mr. Trump included South Carolina in late January when he made his first campaign trip of the 2024 race and has the backing of Gov. Henry McMaster and the state’s senior senator, Lindsey Graham. “He remains very popular in South Carolina," Mr. Dawson said.

Political rivals have underestimated Ms. Haley in the past, Mr. Dawson said, and would be foolish to do so now. “She’s built the infrastructure to go the distance and I think she stands a really good chance of being competitive," he said.

A number of other Republicans are also thought to be contemplating entering the race, including Ms. Noem, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

Several polls of hypothetical GOP primary contests have shown Messrs. Trump and DeSantis leading the field. The more candidates in the race, the more likely establishment Republican support may be splintered, potentially helping Mr. Trump.

In a statement shared by his campaign, Mr. Trump said: “Even though Nikki Haley said, “I would never run against my President, he was a great President, the best President in my lifetime," I told her she should follow her heart and do what she wants to do. I wish her luck!"

Taylor Budowich, the head of Make America Great Again Inc., a super PAC aligned with Mr. Trump, released a more critical statement, calling her “a career politician whose only fulfilled commitment is to herself."

Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, also a South Carolinian, said in a statement that Ms. Haley was barely distinguishable from Mr. Trump, and that her “entrance officially kicks off a messy 2024 primary race for the MAGA base that has long been brewing. Everyone get your popcorn."

Glenn McCall, a Republican National Committee member from South Carolina who is remaining neutral in the GOP presidential nomination race for now, said he expects Ms. Haley will be a strong competitor, especially in her home state. “The president has about a third of dedicated supporters and she could get a good portion of the remainder of those two thirds," he said.

Mr. McCall said the state’s GOP voters are looking for a “strong conservative who will implement policies that move us forward, but is also presidential and can draw people in, rather than alienate them."

The state’s political operatives like to point out that South Carolina has a strong record for supporting candidates who eventually become their party’s nominees. The GOP nominee has won the state’s primary in every contested race since 1980, with the exception of 2012, when Newt Gingrich won and Mitt Romney went on to become the nominee.