By Arun Agarwal

While it is still very early and the field for the Republican nomination is far from settled, and surely stranger things have happened in American politics, most experts don’t give Nikki Haley even a puncher’s chance of winning the primary, much less the presidency.

Haley, a former governor of South Carolina and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, officially announced her candidacy in the 2024 presidential race on Feb. 14. She is the first significant challenger to former President Donald Trump for the Republican nomination.

It’s a shame that these media analysts are so quick to write off a candidate before the general population is even offered a whiff of an opportunity to become familiar with their agenda.

According to them, Haley may not be a perfect candidate. She certainly represents a new era in politics, an era of candidates more than ready to move beyond the stale and flavorless talking points offered by the faded and familiar names of the past. Haley, like many who will follow her into the primaries, provides voters with a novel construct, the option of a new generation of viable candidates to lead the charge into a better and more united future.

For decades of presidential elections, our candidates have risen in front of us, pounded upon their bully pulpits and expressed alarm and dissatisfaction at the lack of production of the entrenched and incumbent assembly of representatives. We then naively elect those who are as angry as we are and send them to Washington, where the cycle, unfortunately, but predictably, starts anew.

And, for whatever reason, despite the painfully obvious functional and collaborative deficiencies, we can’t seem to get them out of office.

Candidates, once elected, have a platform that is both bigger and louder than any potential challengers can possibly compete with, and incumbents, for the most part, become heavy statistical favorites to repeat. They become addicted to the power and influence they acquire in office, which often results in opportunities to improve their personal financial standing, which escalates their political ambition, and the cycle repeats itself over and over again. Combine that with laws written by (you guessed it) these same representatives that make it virtually impossible to fire them (even for explicit or criminal behavior), it’s no wonder they keep reaching for the same silver spoon.

The entrance of Haley into the presidential field highlights a new generation of candidates who promise to deemphasize “identity politics” in their campaigns. In doing so, Haley, the daughter of Indian immigrants and the first person of color elected governor in the state of South Carolina. Her candidacy could find traction with millennials from both sides of the aisle. The question, of course, remains as to whether Haley can steadfastly remain committed to an agenda that appeals to multiple ideological demographics, but what is not up for debate anymore is the influence that the new generation is having on our political elections.

In the 2020 election, voters in the younger generations, including both Gen Z and millennials, favored Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 20 percentage points, while Gen X and the baby boomers were split relatively evenly. In essence, and in reality, the younger voters decided the last election. And, given the unexpected impact that the youngest generations had in the latest presidential election, it’s not entirely surprising that candidates are reworking their messaging to more closely connect with these voters.

And perhaps this is exactly what Washington needs, a light at the end of the long and wearying tunnel that is signaling the end of all politicians who have been tenured since the 20th century, in favor of a younger and fresher group who can rally voters behind a common cause and move this country forward in a single and united direction, without all the backbiting and antagonism and hostility. Perhaps it is time we consider giving up the keys to someone who can take the corners a little sharper, and cleanly and adeptly avoid the inevitable spring potholes.

Maybe Haley, as she is advocating, will at long last be the one to implement the consensus bipartisan initiative of congressional term limits and allow for a fresh and innovative ideological perspective. Or maybe she will be the one to humanize the opposing party and promote reconciliation and compromise in areas of conflict. Or maybe, finally, Nikki Haley will find a way to quantify political performance as an assessment of accomplishment — as corporate America does every single day- and sack the politicians who simply aren’t measuring up.

Maybe she will, or maybe she won’t. But I can assure you this, if it isn’t Haley, it will most certainly be someone, and very soon, who is cut from the same political cloth. Her candidacy sure will show a way for a new generation of leaders. The millennials will see that Gen Z won’t be far behind.

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Arun Agarwal is the CEO of Nextt, a Dallas based-textile company, and co-chair and founder of the Indian American CEO council (IACEO). He is also the vice chair of the Texas Economic Development Corporation. Twitter: @arunatne. Energiesnet.com does not necessarily share these views.

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published by Dallas Morning News on March 09, 2023. All comments posted and published on EnergiesNet.com, do not reflect either for or against the opinion expressed in the comment as an endorsement of EnergiesNet.com or Petroleumworld.

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energiesNet.com 07 24 2023