CHARLESTON, S.C.: On Wednesday, Republican Nikki Haley plans to formally launch her bid for the presidency in 2024. She is hoping that her precedent-setting career as a woman of color who served as governor in the heart of the South before representing the United States internationally will be able to overcome steadfast support for her former employer, former President Donald Trump.

Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and ambassador to the United Nations, announced her candidacy in a video on Tuesday. She will make her first public appearance as a declared candidate for the White House at the event on Wednesday in the historic coastal city of Charleston. It might also be a sign of support in her home state, which hosts a crucial early primary that determines whether the GOP nomination will proceed.

Haley is now the first significant Republican to formally challenge Trump as a result of the announcement, but she won't be the last. In the upcoming months, candidates like former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former Vice President Mike Pence, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis are anticipated to announce their candidacies. Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolinian like Haley, is also considering running for president.

The biggest question as the primary season for president approaches is whether any of the candidates will be able to unseat Trump as the leader of a party that he fundamentally changed with his first run for office in 2016. Despite some party officials blaming him for the GOP's underwhelming showing in the 2018 midterm elections, he still enjoys widespread support from voters who will have significant influence in the primary. A crowded field could work in Trump's favour, as it did in 2016, allowing him to sail to the nomination while his rivals split their support.

Just 1% of Republicans named Haley as their preferred leader, out of a total of eleven other candidates.

Haley is probably going to stand out in the GOP field in part by highlighting her biography. She discussed growing up in a small South Carolina town as the daughter of Indian immigrants and dealing with racist slurs in the video that was made public on Tuesday. Haley insisted that despite her experiences as a child of feeling "different," America is not a racist nation.

Republicans who support efforts to stop or alter how the subject of systemic racism is taught in schools and universities may find that argument to be persuasive.

Haley also used the video to take aim at Republicans, saying that the party needs to change its strategy because it has lost the popular vote in seven out of the last eight presidential elections. She emphasized her two successful elections as governor of South Carolina, beginning with the victory in 2010 that made her the state's first female and minority governor as well as the country's youngest governor at the age of 38.