Starting Monday, the campaign of Nikki Haley will air a three-minute television advertisement in New Hampshire. The ad features Cindy Warmbier, the mother of Otto Warmbier, an American college student who tragically died in 2017 after a year of detention in North Korea.
The advertisement aims to underscore Haley’s foreign policy expertise and the personal bond she formed with Cindy Warmbier. This comes just before the New Hampshire primary.
In the ad, Cindy Warmbier recounts her son’s ordeal. “Otto was invited to North Korea on an organized tour. He was taken hostage, tortured, and murdered by the North Korean government,” she says.
During Haley’s tenure as the United Nations ambassador, she forged a strong bond with the Warmbier family following their son’s death. Cindy Warmbier praises Haley’s support, saying, “She told us to be loud and fight back. To fight for justice. To fight for ourselves. And to fight for Otto. We passed laws in Otto’s name, seized North Korean assets, and helped close down illegal businesses run by the North Koreans.”
She further adds that Haley demonstrated both strength and compassion in supporting her family during their traumatic period. “She promised me she would do everything she could to make sure the world never forgot Otto,” Warmbier says in the ad.
The new ad is part of a significant investment Haley and her supporters have made in the New Hampshire primary. They have spent roughly double the amount on advertising compared to former President Donald Trump’s political network since the start of the 2024 White House race. However, Trump and his allies have increased their spending in the state in recent weeks to counter Haley’s momentum.
While Cindy Warmbier has not been a regular part of Haley’s campaign, she did introduce Haley in South Carolina when she launched her campaign last year. Haley is attempting to differentiate her stance on North Korea from that of Trump, who has publicly praised the letters he exchanged with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un during his presidency.
Despite criticizing Kim immediately after Otto Warmbier’s death, Trump later stated he did not hold Kim responsible during their second meeting. “He tells me that he didn’t know about it, and I will take him at his word,” Trump said. “I don’t believe that he would have allowed that to happen, it just wasn’t to his advantage to allow that to happen.”
These comments led Warmbier’s parents to unequivocally assert that Kim and his “evil regime” were responsible for their son’s death.