Despite having said she wouldn’t run against Trump for the nomination two years ago, former South Carolina governor and Trump appointee and one-time “friend” Nikki Haley is now leading the charge to unseat the president.
Trump-skeptical Republicans throughout the GOP, including fundraisers and organisers in early voting states, have poured money and manpower into supporting Haley in recent weeks. Donors who supported Tim Scott are planning a Manhattan event to raise money for her. There was a need for overflow spaces at Haley’s New Hampshire campaign rallies this week. Some conservatives are actively working to rally support for Haley in Iowa, where she faces more formidable opposition from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
Republican operative Matthew Bartlett, who has worked on multiple presidential campaigns but is staying neutral this year, has observed that “Nikki Haley is certainly locking up a lot of the Never Trumpers.” And, “She also has real room to grow.”
Two associates of hedge fund billionaire and Trump opponent Paul Singer are among the donors preparing to host Haley on December 4 in New York. A Republican fundraiser in New York City who requested anonymity to discuss private discussions said that Greg Wendt, a longtime Scott backer who has donated to moderate, anti-Trump Republicans like John Kasich and John McCain, is now expressing interest in Haley. After months of looking at the field for an alternative to Trump, Republican operative Doug Gross, who was the party’s nominee for governor in Iowa in 2002, told AWN he plans to caucus for Haley.
“Never Trumpers and ‘Anybody but Trumpers’ are really consolidating around her from a financial standpoint,” said Gross, who was chief of staff to former Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad.
This recent uptick in enthusiasm has been great for Haley. Both the first primary state of New Hampshire and her home state of South Carolina now have her ahead of DeSantis in the polls. One recent survey showed her running neck and neck with DeSantis in Iowa.
Former Iowa state lawmaker Carmine Boal said, “I was kind of vacillating between three or four different people,” before deciding to back Haley because she believes she is the most probable candidate to beat Trump. That I would not vote for him in the caucuses was the one thing I was sure about. The independents, especially suburban women, seem like they’d be receptive to [Haley]. And it’s common knowledge that the independent vote decides elections.
On Tuesday, “The View” co-host and Trump White House assistant Alyssa Farah Gryphon, who has been sceptical of the former president’s candidature, called Haley “hands down the best option to beat Trump.”
Haley is still somewhat behind Obama’s former vice president. Consolidating the anti-Trump vote is likely to only get Haley so far in a party he continues to dominate. Haley is the most recent example of the problem they’re all up against in a primary that remains crowded. Take a strong stance against Trump and alienate his supporters. Vote for him and you’ll drive away those who are anxious for a change next year.
Sarah Longwell, an anti-Trump Republican who regularly conducts focus groups of GOP voters, described Haley’s ideal primary electorate as “a lot of the old-school Republicans who did not like Trump but voted for him the first time with their fingers crossed, and then refused to vote for him a second time.”
However, the majority of Republican voters are not there.
“I do think that most people seem aware that her path is an extraordinarily narrow one,” said Longwell. “I mean, extraordinarily narrow.”
Haley is attempting to expand her party’s support by reaching out to both the party’s most conservative members and its more moderate supporters. During a candidate event held by a conservative evangelical group in Des Moines last week, she voiced support for a state-level, six-week ban on abortion after months of giving vague answers on abortion policy intended to show depth and compassion during the November debate.
In the same way, Haley has gone through phases of opposing and admiring Trump throughout the past eight years, and more lately, she has done both.
As governor of South Carolina in 2016, Haley spoke out against Trump becoming the Republican nominee, putting her endorsement behind Sen. Marco Rubio. Then, following Trump’s election, she was appointed to the position of United Nations ambassador, and after she left office in 2018, she wrote a book in which she praised the previous president.
After the brawl in the Capitol in 2021, Haley was all over the place, first criticising Trump for his administration’s choices and then saying that conservatives “need him in the Republican Party.”
Now that she’s on the campaign road, Haley has tried to accommodate a wide range of opinions by saying things like, “The right president at the right time,” while also being critical of Trump’s foreign policy and demeanour. She isn’t running like a conservative, like former New Jersey governor Chris Christie did, so it’s unlikely she’s winning over “Never Trump” Republicans.
According to Republican pollster Whit Ayres, “where her support comes from are people who are ‘Maybe Trump,’ the people who voted for Trump twice, would vote for him against Joe Biden in a heartbeat, but are worried or at least interested in who else is out there,”
It seems to be working for the time being, and Haley is preparing to unleash a deluge of advertising in the closing stretch before the early state contests. Reservations for future television ads show that the Haley camp is currently in the lead. From Thanksgiving week to the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary, the top two groups to reserve ad time are the Haley campaign and her super PAC, Stand for America Fund Inc.
AdImpact reports that between now and then, the Haley campaign has reserved $4.2 million and the SFA Fund has reserved $3.8 million on airtime in Iowa and New Hampshire. Haley’s team has said they will spend $10 million on media buys in the first two states, including TV, radio, and digital commercials.
The Never Back Down super PAC, which is connected with DeSantis, has booked $3.3 million in TV advertisements in New Hampshire and Iowa before the New Hampshire primary, while DeSantis himself has booked $1.5 million in TV ads in the same time period, all in Iowa.
DeSantis is still collecting support of his own from some Trump critics: On Tuesday, Bob Vander Plaats, an influential evangelical leader in Iowa, endorsed him. NBC reported on Tuesday that a super PAC with ties to the campaign of the Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, is removing anti-Haley advertising in Iowa due to poor reception.
Haley and her campaign are clearly conducting a victory lap now that they have taken over the second place position in the race that had previously been held by DeSantis.
Increasing numbers of people agree that Nikki Haley is the greatest candidate to face Donald Trump and Joe Biden, according to a statement released by Haley’s spokesperson, Olivia Perez-Cubas, to AWN. A man and a woman are the only contestants in this race.
As Trump spokesman Steven Cheung put it on Tuesday, “Ron DeSantis must be devastated his Never Trump sugar daddies have found someone new.”