By STEVE PEOPLES (AP National Political Writer)
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the highly effective Koch community, formally endorsed Nikki Haley’s presidential marketing campaign on Tuesday, promising to commit its nationwide military of activists — and just about limitless funds — to serving to Haley defeat former President Donald Trump within the GOP main contest.
“AFP Action is proud to throw our full support behind Nikki Haley, who offers America the opportunity to turn the page on the current political era, to win the Republican primary and defeat Joe Biden next November,” AFP president and CEO Emily Seidel wrote in a memo saying the group’s resolution.
“She has what it takes to lead a policy agenda to take on our nation’s biggest challenges and help ensure our country’s best days are ahead. With the grassroots and data capability we bring to bear in this race, no other organization is better equipped to help her do it.”
The endorsement might assist Haley deal with certainly one of her largest strategic liabilities.
Despite seizing some polling momentum in latest months, particularly in early main states, the previous United Nations ambassador’s marketing campaign has been missing vital manpower on the bottom to make sure her supporters end up to vote. But now, she inherits the organizational heft of what stands out as the strongest conservative grassroots group within the nation. The Koch community, beforehand known as the Koch Brothers, has been constructing a community of paid conservative activists and volunteers in key states for a number of years.
Through this summer season and fall alone, Americans for Prosperity activists have already communicated with six million main voters, both in individual at their doorways or on the cellphone, Seidel stated.
The growth marks a very painful blow to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who had championed conservative priorities in Florida, however struggled to emerge because the clear Trump various within the 2024 GOP main contest. It’s unclear, nonetheless, whether or not the endorsement may also help weaken Trump’s grip on the Republican presidential nomination given his commanding lead over DeSantis and Haley in just about each ballot.
Back within the spring, the Koch community started working advertisements throughout Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — the primary three states on the GOP’s presidential main calendar — specializing in questions on Trump’s electability in subsequent fall’s common election in opposition to Biden. And nonetheless, Trump stays the overwhelming frontrunner within the race.
Seidel stated Tuesday that Americans for Prosperity would instantly start refocusing its efforts on boosting Haley’s main and common election campaigns with strategic promoting investments, mailers and voter contacts by the group’s community of 1000’s of conservative activists, which has spent latest months accumulating data from Republican main voters to find out the best arguments in opposition to Trump.
At the identical time, Seidel stated that her group would concentrate on convincing dependable common election voters, who usually don’t vote in primaries, to indicate up for Haley on this yr’s fast-approaching nomination contests.
Trump marketing campaign spokesman Steven Cheung dismissed Americans for Prosperity as “the political arm of the China-first, America-last movement.”
“No amount of shady money from George Soros, Democrats and Never-Trump RINOs in partnership with endless-war swamp creatures in Washington will stop the MAGA movement or President Trump from being the Republican nominee and defeating Crooked Joe Biden,” Cheung wrote in an announcement responding to the Haley endorsement.
The DeSantis camp was not happy.
In an announcement, DeSantis spokesman Andrew Romeo likened the Koch endorsement to a contribution to the Trump marketing campaign.
“Congratulations to Donald Trump on securing the Koch endorsement. 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,” Romeo wrote on X, previously often known as Twitter. “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.”
Yet the Koch community is satisfied that Haley is healthier positioned to defeat Trump — and Biden — than DeSantis.
In a polling memo, senior adviser Michael Palmer highlighted Haley’s “sustained momentum in recent months,” whereas noting that many main voters in Iowa and New Hampshire are solely simply starting to pay shut consideration to the competition.
“Gov DeSantis has been a tremendous leader of rate state of Florida,” Seidel stated in a Tuesday convention name. “But all of the evidence we’ve already shared on this call point to the fact that Nikki Haley is the strongest candidate in this race and that’s why we decided to support her.”
Meanwhile, Haley stated she was honored to have the help of Americans for Prosperity, “including its millions of grassroots members all across the country.”
“AFP Action’s members know that there is too much at stake in this election to sit on the sidelines,” she stated in an announcement. “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.”
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AP author Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina contributed.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”