Haley tells CPAC crowd she's running for president to stop America's 'spiral toward socialism'

Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley told an attentive 2023 CPAC on Friday she's running for president to stop socialism from spreading further in the United States. 

"I'm running for president to stop America's downward spiral toward socialism and the self loathing that has taken over our country," she said at the annual Conservative Political Action Committee event, just outside of Washington, D.C. "I'm running for president to renew an America that is strong and proud and not weak and woke."

Right now, Haley is former President Trump's only official, top-name challenger for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination.

"The Democrat Party is now a socialist party," continued Haley who spoke to mostly quiet applause before the largely pro-Trump crowd, ahead of the former president's Saturday afternoon speech that will close out the four-day event. 

"Bernie Sanders and AOC at least own it," she said, referring to the self-described democratic-social Senator Sanders, who is a registered independent, and to progressive stalwart New York Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. "Look at how much taxpayer money [President] Biden has wasted since he took office."

Haley, also a former South Carolina governor, concluded her roughly 10-minutes speech by asking would-be voters to put trust in a new generation of Republicans to lead the party. 

"If you're tired of losing, put your trust in a new generation if you want to win not just as a party, but as a country," she said. 

Haley concluded her speech by praising the U.S.

"This will always be the greatest nation in human history," she said, resulting in applause from the crowd. "Now we have a duty to make it greater."