Republican Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina backed Mitt Romney on Friday morning on Fox and Friends, an endorsement so highly regarded by the Romney campaign that it chartered a plane to make sure members of the media would make the announcement, according to The New York Times.
“Today is the day that I’m throwing all of my support behind Mitt Romney for president,” Haley said on the Fox News show.
“What I wanted is somebody who is not part of the chaos that is Washington,” she said. “What I wanted was someone who knew what it was like to turn broken companies around, and someone who had proven results by improving a failed Olympics that ended up being a great success story.”
In a statement, Romney called the endorsement "an honor."
Haley also praised Romney’s leadership as Massachusetts governor, noting that he balanced the budget and cut taxes. Romney, she said, is the right man for the times—and the one candidate who scares President Obama.
“You put all those candidates together, and you've got one perfect candidate. But you're never going to have a perfect candidate. So what you do is you look at the times of the day, you look at what we need in the country,” Haley said.
“Governor Romney is the one candidate that President Obama tries to hit and get out of the way," Haley said. "That lets me know he's scared of him.”
Haley rode a wave of tea party support to the governorship last year. With her conservative credentials, her endorsement could give Romney a boost in South Carolina, a key early-primary state.
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