Nikki Haley heads into Caucus Day hoping for a two-person race with Donald Trump post-Iowa

Nikki Haley heads into Caucus Day hoping the results at the end of the night will show the 2024 presidential race is a two-person contest between her and Donald Trump.

Haley was the first major candidate to jump into the presidential race when she announced her campaign in February. The former United Nations ambassador and South Carolina governor has positioned herself as one of the top challengers to the former president, buoyed by her strong debate performances and foreign policy experience.

Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa Poll results showed Haley at 6% in August before rising to 16% in October and December. She reached 20% in January — second place behind Trump — just days before the caucuses.

She followed a slow and steady cadence of Iowa visits, holding 85 public events in the state over the course of the campaign cycle. She largely stuck to town halls where she would speak about spending, immigration, foreign policy and veteran homelessness before taking questions from Iowans.

Haley brought a polished and well-rehearsed style to the Iowa campaign trail. She rarely deviated from her planned stump speeches, walking onstage to the same guitar beat in "Eye of the Tiger" before urging her crowds to elect "a new generational leader."

For most of the campaign, she rarely called out her rivals at her events. But she has stepped up her criticism of Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in the race's final weeks.

"I believe President Trump was the right president at the right time. I agree with a lot of his policies," she said in Waukee earlier this month. "But rightly or wrongly, chaos follows him. You know I'm right. Chaos follows him. And we have a country in disarray and a world on fire, and we go through four more years of chaos. We won't survive it. You don't defeat Democrat chaos with Republican chaos."

More: How the Iowa Caucuses work, who can caucus and where to caucus

With voters, Haley has described herself as a "scrappy" leader — someone who is fierce and willing to stand up and fight for the American people. She often talks about running for governor of South Carolina after she was told to "put away" a bill she filed requiring legislators' votes be recorded whenever issues are debated on the floor of the House or Senate.

That bill, Haley has said, was among the first she signed into law after becoming governor. On the day of the bill signing, Haley says she marked the moment by blasting Pat Benatar's song "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" in the statehouse.

The 51-year-old is a daughter of Indian immigrants, a military wife, a mother of two adult children and a Clemson University graduate ("Go Tigers!" she often tells Iowans on the campaign trail). She grew up in Bamberg, South Carolina, a town of a few thousand people where, she says, "you couldn’t think about doing something wrong without somebody telling your mom."

"No one's going to outwork me in this race. No one's going to outsmart me in this race. We have a country to save, and I'm determined," Haley told reporters in August after speaking at the Des Moines Register's Political Soapbox.

Nikki Haley leaned into differences with Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis on foreign policy and abortion

Haley has staked out strong policy differences from Trump and DeSantis, notably on foreign policy and abortion.

She has leaned on her background as a former United Nations ambassador, walking audiences through lessons in geopolitical strategy involving Russia, China and Iran. She has often talked about how the United States must provide military equipment and ammunition to Ukraine and Israel, in addition to securing the U.S. southern border.

All three, she says, are necessary to protect national security.

"This is about preventing war," she said in Ankeny this month. "It’s always been about preventing war."

More: Iowa caucus night: Where to find results, follow live coverage

Haley also has taken a less combative stance on abortion than several of the other candidates in the race, often telling crowds that "the fellas" don't know how to talk about the issue.

Haley has said her rivals should "be honest" with Americans about the difficulty of winning over a majority of the House and 60 votes in the Senate to pass a federal law banning abortion.

"Everybody has a story. Let’s be respectful of their story," she told a crowd in Atlantic in December. "You will not hear me demonize this issue anymore, and frankly the fellas just don’t know how to talk about it. We have to humanize this and treat it with the respect that it deserves."

Stephen Gruber-Miller covers the Iowa Statehouse and politics for the Register. He can be reached by email at sgrubermil@registermedia.com or by phone at 515-284-8169. Follow him on Twitter at @sgrubermiller.

F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Nikki Haley heads into Caucus Day hoping for strong 2nd-place showing