EXCLUSIVE – Former U.N. ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley is demanding that a group claiming to represent former Haley voters who support the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris stop using her name.
"Kamala Harris and I are total opposites on every issue. Any attempt to use my name to support her or her agenda is deceptive and wrong," Haley said in a statement shared first with Fox News on Tuesday. "I support Donald Trump because he understands we need to make America strong, safe, and prosperous."
Haley's comments were directed toward a political action committee (PAC) that was previously known as "Haley Voters for Biden."
The group started featuring Harris' name on Sunday, after President Biden ended his re-election bid and endorsed his vice president to succeed him as the Democratic Party's presidential nominee.
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Haley launched her own White House bid in February of last year, becoming the first major Republican candidate to challenge former President Trump for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. And she was the last rival to Trump left standing before she dropped out of the race in early March. Even after ending her campaign, Haley continued to grab up to 20% of the vote in some of the ensuing Republican presidential primaries.
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Haley was a very vocal critic of the former president during their heated primary race. But in late May, in her first public comments since announcing the end of her 2024 campaign, Haley said she would vote for Trump. And in a speech last week at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, she formally endorsed Trump.
The group, which says it's a coalition of former Haley voters, pledged their support for Harris soon after Biden endorsed his vice president.
"We support @JoeBiden's recommendation and will immediately change the name of our organization to Haley Voters for Harris. There is no time to lose," the group wrote in a social media posting on Sunday afternoon.
The group, which changed the name of its page on X and on its website, also spotlighted that it has no affiliation with Haley or her aligned political committees.
"We also do not and never claimed to speak for Nikki Haley. We are reaching out to a subset of Haley voters who will vote their consciences," the group wrote. "Haley said Trump had to earn our votes. He has done nothing to do so – constantly deriding her – and picked Vance as his running mate."
But a letter from a law firm representing Haley's presidential campaign, shared with Fox News, demanded that the group "cease and desist from any unlawful use of Ambassador Haley’s name in your political action committee name, and from any use of her name, image or likeness that implies her support for the election of Kamala Harris as President of the United States."
"Any use by you of Ambassador Haley’s name, image, or likeness is without her permission. Ambassador Haley has been clear in her support of Harris’ opponent. Any intimation that Ambassador Haley supports Harris is intentionally false and misleading," the letter continued.
The letter warns that if the group fundraises under the name "Haley Voters for Harris" or a similar name, the Haley campaign will alert investigative authorities, including the Justice Department and the FBI.
Less than 36 hours after Biden's blockbuster news, Harris announced that she had locked up the nomination.
"I am proud to have earned the support needed to become our party’s nominee," the vice president wrote in a social media post just after midnight early Tuesday morning.
Harris showcased that she'd won commitments of backing from a majority of the nearly 4,000 delegates to next month's Democratic National Convention, which kicks off Aug. 19 in Chicago.
As much of the Democratic Party – including governors, senators and House members as well as party leaders – quickly coalesced behind Harris following Biden's blockbuster news, state delegations to the convention started huddling the past two days and announced their support for the vice president. And an Associated Press survey of Democratic delegates indicated by late Monday that Harris had gone over the top.
Last week, before Biden ended his bid, Haley reiterated her criticism of Harris when it comes to the crisis at the nation's southern border.
In her address at the GOP convention, Haley emphasized that the vice president "had one job... and that was to fix the border. Now imagine her in charge of the entire country."
