Haley seeks to quell talk she could replace Pence

Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley on Tuesday sought to quell persistent speculation that she is angling to replace Vice President Pence on the 2020 Republican ticket.

“It’s amazing how this vice president stuff still keeps coming up,” Haley said during an appearance on Fox News to promote her new book.

{mosads}”The vice president and the president are a great ticket together,” she continued. “They’re solid. Solid enough that they’re going to win together. There is no truth whatsoever that I would ever in any way look to get that position. I think Mike is great for that job and I think that he’s the right partner for the president.”

Haley’s political future has been the subject of intense speculation since she left the Trump administration a year ago. While she and Trump have attempted in recent months to tamp down talk of her replacing Pence on the 2020 ticket, chatter of the possibility sparked back up with Haley’s reemergence for her new book.

The former South Carolina governor has been on a publicity binge, appearing on Fox News, CBS and NBC in recent days. She has portrayed herself as a fierce supporter of the president’s agenda in those interviews, leading some strategists to speculate that she’s setting herself up for a future campaign.

Haley is widely considered a likely future GOP candidate for higher office. On Tuesday, she declined to opine on her political future.

“I know how many people have talked about my political aspirations,” she said. “But I don’t think of it as much as other people like to chat about it. I think really for me, a year is a lifetime in politics. It would be a waste of energy to think out that far.”