一些选民称她为“哪个尼基?”在竞选南卡罗来纳州州长时，她成为了美国第一位女性少数族裔州长。

现在妮基·黑利她的目标是成为美国第一位女总统。

虽然她仍以两位数的差距落后于共和党初选对手唐纳德·特朗普，而且经常还是民意调查在10%以下，像拥挤的领域中的大多数其他人一样，她对自己的持久力充满信心，最近还鼓吹一些鼓舞人心的迹象。

“习惯于看到这张脸，”她会在旅途中说。或者:“低估我，那会很有趣。”

共和党选民说他们注意到了。

政治专家也看到了哈利面前的机会，但补充说，这位前联合国大使的真正挑战仍然存在，她是印度移民的女儿，也是唯一的女性，也是唯一的非白人女性2024年共和党总统候选人提名.

“妮基·黑利在南卡罗莱纳州有很强的保守派记录，但我认为她现在的不足之处是，其他竞选团队有她没有的战争资金，”保守派政治策略师戴夫·威尔逊说。

海莉的财务文件显示，她上个季度筹集了730万美元。相比之下，特朗普通过他的联合筹款实体筹集了超过3500万美元。

在上个月的初选辩论后，海莉说她设法在筹款和志愿者方面取得了进展，美国有线电视新闻网上周公布的一项民意调查显示，她是唯一一位在假想的一对一较量中击败乔·拜登总统的共和党总统候选人。

“我认为原因...很简单，”哈利周日在CNN上说。“我认为大多数美国人都知道我们需要一个新的一代领导人，我们需要将过去的负面影响抛在身后。大多数美国人不想看到特朗普和拜登之间的复赛。这一点非常清楚。”

《538》、《华盛顿邮报》和益普索在初选辩论前后对可能的共和党选民进行了调查，也显示了海莉的进步当前位置她名列第三，仅次于佛罗里达州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯和商人维韦克·拉马斯瓦米，但认为她表现最差的人也较少。

“你在辩论台上看到的是我一生中一直在做的事情:我说的是严酷的事实，”海利后来在新罕布什尔州曼彻斯特市尼基市政厅举行的家长会议上说。

2023年7月20日，共和党总统候选人妮基·黑利在南卡罗来纳州格林维尔的一场竞选活动中发表讲话

Meg Kinnard/AP，文件

海利告诉福克斯新闻频道，在辩论后的72小时内，她的竞选活动筹集了100万美元，希望参与的人大幅增加。

“我们得到了极好的回应。我是说，真的...我们有成千上万的志愿者，我们有很多人加入了这场运动，电话还在响，所以我们很感激。我的意思是，我们非常感激，但这只会让我们更有动力，因为我们有一个国家要拯救，”她说。

战略家威尔逊说，“每当你有一个民意测验，显示势头增长，势头产生势头，总是如此。所以这对妮基·黑利的支持者来说是一个机会，那些一直坐在围栏上等着看会发生什么的人，开始走上前来，资助她的努力向前发展。”

“当你有了自己筹集的资金，你就有能力做广告之类的事情，”威尔逊说，并补充说，“妮基·黑利反驳说，她的信息和她的个性中有一种力量，我们已经能够看到，从历史上看，这给了她一种能力，可以将动力转向自己的方向，而金钱有时不会做到这一点。”

她在竞选过程中的许多站点的上座率也有所上升，8月下旬，她在南卡罗来纳州举行了辩论后的第一次市政厅会议，只有站立的位置，主礼堂、阳台和其他房间约有1000人。

新罕布什尔州居民大卫·奥斯古德(David Osgood)表示，他认为海莉自辩论表现以来一直在攀升，并认为她已经将自己定位为下一任总统，如果她能赢得共和党提名，并吃掉特朗普在基础选民中的巨大领先优势。

“我认为她是最突出的一个，”奥斯古德在谈到海莉的辩论表演时说。

海利家乡的一些选民同意这一观点。

来自南卡罗来纳州的克里斯·理查森说:“这非常令人兴奋，因为她开始时在民意调查中几乎没有登记，现在她真的开始起飞了。”

理查森说:“我认为她在辩论中的表现是很大的一部分，你认为随着她的前进，这将是非常令人兴奋的。”

来自南卡罗莱纳州的杰森·詹森说:“她被如此低估真是太好了。即使当我第一次发现她在竞选总统时，我也没想到她会有她想要的轨迹。”

你对特朗普总统说了一些相当严厉的话

海莉在赢得保守派选民方面的一个潜在痛处是她对前老板的评论，包括她说特朗普在处理机密文件时可能“极其鲁莽”。(他否认有不当行为。)

“你在辩论舞台上对特朗普总统说了一些相当严厉的话。因此，人们想知道，当你举手表示支持他时，你是不是在撒谎，”在新罕布什尔州克莱尔蒙特的一次市政厅会议上，一名选民被问到一个问题时说道。

另一个人说，“我的感觉是你不喜欢特朗普，我理解这一点。我知道他为一个除了反对他什么都没有的人做了很多好事。”

海莉为自己的立场辩护。

“你知道，我发现有趣的是，人们希望我100%地爱他，或者他们希望我100%地恨他，”她在市政厅说。“媒体希望我百分之百地讨厌他。特朗普的支持者希望我百分百爱他什么的。我不会100%同意任何人的观点。所以我在任何事情上都会非常非常诚实。”

Nikki Haley relishes boost in polling, fundraising as she pushes to break out from middle of GOP field

She was referred to by some voters as "Nikki who?" when running for governor of South Carolina -- and went on to become the first female minority governor in the country.

NowNikki Haleyhas set her sights on becoming the first female president of the United States.

While she still trails Republican primary rival Donald Trump by double digits,and often still pollsbeneath 10%, like most of the rest of the crowded field, she's projected confidence about her staying power and has recently trumpeted some encouraging signs of gathering momentum.

"Get used to seeing this face," she'll say on the trail. Or: "Underestimate me, that'll be fun."

GOP voters say they are taking notice.

Political experts, too, see opportunity ahead for Haley but add that real challenges persist for the former U.N. ambassador -- a daughter of Indian immigrants and the only woman, as well as only non-white woman, to seekthe 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

"Nikki Haley has a strong conservative record in South Carolina, but I think where she has a deficit right now is the fact that the other campaigns have war chests that she doesn't," said conservative political strategist Dave Wilson.

Haley's financial filings show she raised $7.3 million last quarter. Trump, by contrast, brought in more than $35 million through his joint fundraising entity.

After last month's primary debate, Haley said she managed to climb up in fundraising and volunteers and a poll released by CNN last week showed her as the only GOP presidential candidate beating President Joe Biden in a hypothetical head-to-head.

"I think the reason ... is simple," Haley said Sunday on CNN. "I think the majority of Americans know we need a new generational leader, that we need to leave the negativity of the past behind us. The majority of Americans don't want to see a rematch between Trump and Biden. That's been very clear."

A FiveThirtyEight/Washington Post/Ipsos survey of likely Republican voters, taken before and after the primary debate,also showed Haley gaining ground: She was ranked as doing the third best, behind only Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy -- but fewer people also said she did the worst.

"What you saw on the debate stage is what I've done my entire life: I speak hard truths," Haley said afterward during a Parents for Nikki Town Hall in Manchester, New Hampshire.

Haley told Fox News that in the first 72 hours after the debate, her campaign raised $1 million and saw a massive jump in people wanting to get involved.

"We've had a fantastic response. I mean, truly ... We've had thousands of people volunteer, we've had a lot of people join the campaign, the phones are still ringing and so we're grateful. I mean, we're absolutely grateful but it only keeps us more motivated, because we have a country to save," she said.

Wilson, the strategist, said that "whenever you have a poll that comes through and shows a momentum growth, momentum begets momentum and always has. So this is an opportunity for Nikki Haley's supporters, and those who have been sitting on the fence waiting to see what's going to happen, to start coming up and funding her efforts moving forward."

"When you have money that you've raised, you have an ability to do things like advertising," Wilson said, adding, "Where Nikki Haley counters that is she's got a force in her message and her personality that we've been able to see, historically, has given her an ability to swing momentum in her direction, where money sometimes hasn't been there to do that."

Attendance at many of her stops on the trail has also gone up, with her first town hall after the debate, in South Carolina in late August, having standing room only and about 1,000 people in the main auditorium, balcony and overflow rooms.

undefined

New Hampshire resident David Osgood said he thinks Haley has been climbing since her debate performance and thinks she has positioned herself to become the next president, if she can win the GOP nomination and eat away at Trump's yawning lead among the base.

"I think she was the one that stood out the most," Osgood said of Haley's debate performance.

Some voters in Haley's home state agree.

"It's very exciting because she started out just barely registering on the polls and now she's really starting to take off," said Chris Richardson from South Carolina.

"I think her performance in the debate is a big part of that and you think that it's going to be really exciting as she moves forward," Richardson said.

Fellow South Carolinian Jason Jensen said "it's great that she's been so underestimated. Even when I first found out she was running for president, I didn't expect her to have the trajectory that she was going to have."

'You said some pretty harsh things about President Trump'

A potential sore spot for Haley in winning over conservative voters has been her comments about her former boss, including when she said Trump may have been "incredibly reckless" in his handling of classified documents. (He denies wrongdoing.)

"You said some pretty harsh things about President Trump on the debate stage. And so people are wondering if you were lying when you raised your hand to say he was supported," one voter said when he was picked for a question during a town hall in Claremont, New Hampshire.

Another said, "My feeling was that you didn't care for Trump and I understand that. I know he did a lot of good things for a guy that had nothing but opposition against him."

Haley defended her position.

"You know what I found interesting is people want me to love him 100% or they want me to hate him 100% of the time," she said during the town hall. "The media wants me to hate him 100% of the time. Trump supporters want me to love him 100% or something. I don't agree with anyone 100% of the time. So I'm always gonna be very, very honest in everything."