Television’s Judge Judy has endorsed former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley for president.
Judge Judith Sheindlin has hosted her popular court show for 25 years. She currently hosts “Judy Justice” on Amazon’s Freevee which has garnered over 150 million viewers since 2021.
"I'm proud to endorse Nikki Haley because she is whip smart, has executive credentials and was a superb governor," she said in a statement reported by Fox News.
"She has international gravitas as Ambassador to the United Nations. She is principled, measured and has that elusive quality of real common sense,” continued Sheindlin. “I truly think she can restore America and believe she is the future of this great nation."
Sheindlin became a judge in 1982 after being appointed to Family Court in New York City. Four years later, she became the Supervising Judge of the Manhattan Court in 1986.
“I’m honored to have the support of America’s favorite no-nonsense judge,” wrote Haley on X.
In January of 2020, Sheidlin endorsed former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg for president – the first time she had ever publicly endorsed a presidential candidate.
"When I looked at the field of 2020 candidates, for one reason or another, although I'm sure they're all very nice people, there was no other voice for me other than a voice of someone who has experience in governance," Sheindlin said during an appearance on The View, per ABC News. "New York City has the most diverse population of any place else in the United States of America."
“Mike Bloomberg is the only one of the candidates who has experience governing and managing and [was] successful,” she added. “And if he’s successful and happened to have made money being successful, that, folks, is the American dream. That’s what’s supposed to happen.”
Bloomberg dropped out of the 2020 presidential race roughly two months later in early March. He, in turn, endorsed President Joe Biden.
“I entered the race for President to defeat Donald Trump,” he said, per CNBC. “Today, I am leaving the race for the same reason: to defeat Donald Trump – because it is clear to me that staying in would make achieving that goal more difficult.”
Haley has narrowly secured second place in the polls days ahead of the Iowa Caucus. She has 15% support compared to Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s 14% support and biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy’s 10%, according to Morning Consult. All the Republican hopefuls trail former president Donald Trump, who 58% of Iowa voters plan to support on Jan. 15.
“These survey findings from Iowa go some way toward validating the conventional wisdom on the state of play heading into next week’s first-in-the-nation nominating contest: Trump looks primed to kick things off with a big victory, and a Haley surge may be coming at the perfect time to allow her to pull off a second-place finish,” wrote analyst Cameron Easley.
