SC’s Nikki Haley endorsed by Koch brothers-backed group for GOP nomination
An organization that has rallied against former President Donald Trump in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination is now backing former S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley’s presidential bid.
Americans for Prosperity Action, a super PAC linked to Republican donor Charles Koch, formally announced its endorsement Tuesday after saying for months that a GOP nomination of Trump would lead to President Joe Biden’s reelection.
“When we set out to change the broken politics of Washington, we made clear that we would back a candidate who could turn the page on today’s toxic culture and lead our country forward. But you can’t advance good policy unless you win,” Americans for Prosperity Action said in its endorsement memo. “Our internal polling confirms what our activists are hearing and seeing from voters in the early primary states: Nikki Haley is in the best position to defeat Donald Trump in the primaries.”
Haley said she was honored to receive the endorsement.
“AFP Action’s members know that there is too much at stake in this election to sit on the sidelines,” Haley said in a statement. “This is a choice between freedom and socialism, individual liberty and big government, fiscal responsibility and spiraling debt. We have a country to save, and I’m grateful to have AFP Action by our side.”
According to public polling, Haley is in second place in South Carolina and New Hampshire, and recently was tied for second in a Des Moines Register Poll of Iowa Republican voters.
She also consistently beats Biden by wider margins than other GOP candidates in hypothetical general election matchups.
Charles Koch and his late brother, David, inherited Koch Industries from their father and built it into a conglomerate that makes products including chemicals, electronics, fertilizer, jet fuel and Dixie Cups, according to PBS NewsHour.
The Koch brothers then built a network of nonprofit groups that control hundreds of millions of dollars that flow into political causes, push libertarian ideas and advocate for free-market Republicans in elections.
Haley has been battling with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to be the sole alternative to Trump, who is the dominant frontrunner in the GOP race. DeSantis’ campaign said Americans for Prosperity’s endorsement of Haley only helps the former president.
“Congratulations to Donald Trump on securing the Koch endorsement,” DeSantis Communications Director Andrew Romeo. “Like clockwork, the pro-open borders, pro-jail break bill establishment is lining up behind a moderate who has no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president. Every dollar spent on Nikki Haley’s candidacy should be reported as an in-kind to the Trump campaign. No one has a stronger record of beating the establishment than Ron DeSantis, and this time will be no different.”
The Trump campaign also slammed the endorsement.
Campaign spokesman Steven Cheung told Politico that “no amount of shady money” from outside “Never Trump RINOs” would “stop the MAGA movement” or Trump from securing the Republican nomination.
This story was originally published November 28, 2023 at 10:46 AM with the headline "SC’s Nikki Haley endorsed by Koch brothers-backed group for GOP nomination."
