When Nikki Haley conceded her deflating third-place defeat in the Iowa caucuses this month, the first person she thanked was nearly 8,000 miles away.
“I want to say to my husband, who is deployed, who I know may or may not be watching this right now — Michael, I love you,” she said, standing in front of a row of American flags.
“What keeps me going at night is that we sleep under the same stars.”It was an unusually personal and almost saccharine note for a politician known for her tough exterior.
But it was hardly out of place.
Even in his absence, Maj. Michael Haley, a National Guardsman serving a voluntary, yearlong deployment in Africa, has played an outsize role in his wife’s increasingly lonely attempt to snatch the Republican nomination from former President Donald J. Trump.
Persons:
Nikki Haley, Michael, ”, Michael Haley, Donald J, Trump
Organizations:
National Guardsman
Locations:
Iowa, Africa