Nikki Haley said definitively in her resignation letter and again in the Oval Office on Tuesday that she will not be a candidate for political office in 2020. | Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images Elections Poll suggests Haley could be formidable challenger to Trump

A conservative anti-Trump organization has good news for Nikki Haley’s 2020 presidential aspirations — even if she professes not to have them.

Haley is the strongest potential primary challenger to President Donald Trump, according to a poll funded by the group Defend Democracy Together.


The survey, which polled likely Republican caucus-goers in Iowa as well as Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, found that nearly half — 47 percent — would consider another option to Trump in 2020. Of those polled, Haley topped the list among the probable early state voters, with 52 percent saying they were open to considering her as an alternative to Trump. The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who announced on Tuesday that she is resigning her position at the end of the year, also had the smallest percentage of respondents — 40 percent — say they would not consider her at all.

Haley was among a small group of potential candidates who received support both from voters with concerns about Trump, as well as those who scored Trump highly on job approval.

“That would make her a formidable candidate,” said Matt Kalmans, the co-founder of Applecart, the firm that conducted the poll.





Both Applecart and a spokesman for Defend Democracy Together declined to provide the names of the other potential 2020 primary challenges they polled, but Kalmans said Haley was the only candidate a majority of respondents said they would consider supporting as a Trump alternative. Applecart’s survey was conducted Sept. 18-23, before Haley announced her resignation. The firm reached approximately 1,200 likely Iowa caucus-goers and approximately 1,200 Republican and nonaffiliated New Hampshire primary voters by phone, and the results carry a 2.8 percent margin of error.

While Haley’s resignation sparked speculation about another run for office, the former South Carolina governor said definitively in her resignation letter and again in the Oval Office on Tuesday that she will not be a candidate for political office in 2020.

“No, I'm not running for 2020,” Haley told reporters while sitting next to Trump. “I look forward to supporting the president in the next election.”

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the percentage of poll respondents who said they would not consider Nikki Haley as a potential Republican alternative to President Donald Trump in the 2020 election. Forty percent of those polled said they would not consider Haley.