Americans for Prosperity Action, an influential political network founded by the Koch brothers, announced Tuesday that it is endorsing Nikki Haley for president in the 2024 race.
The network’s support will give Haley access to additional resources in her effort to emerge as the top non-Trump candidate, beginning with a multimillion dollar ad campaign launching in several states this week encouraging voters to support the former South Carolina governor.
The group said it is “proud to be throwing the full weight and scope of its grassroots operation” behind Haley and is expected to provide resources including access to a direct-mail operation, field workers to knock on doors and people making phone calls to prospective voters in the early primary states.
The network has spent more than $9 million opposing Trump, buying online ads and sending mailers to voters in the early primary states. The endorsement by the network could help the Haley campaign catch up to the organizational reach of Ron DeSantis’s campaign amid the final countdown to the Iowa caucuses in January.
“In sharp contrast to recent elections that were dominated by the negative baggage of Donald Trump and in which good candidates lost races that should have been won, Nikki Haley, at the top of the ticket, would boost candidates up and down the ballot,” AFP Action senior advisor Emily Seidel wrote in a memo on Tuesday.
The memo suggests Haley would win “the key independent and moderate voters that Trump has no chance to win.”
Seidel says the country “is being ripped apart by extremes on both sides.”
“The moment we face requires a tested leader with the governing judgment and policy experience to pull our nation back from the brink. Nikki Haley is that leader,” the memo concludes.
The group calls attention to Haley’s “sustained momentum” in another memo showing her growth in the polls.
Support for Haley in New Hampshire grew from just 6 percent in early August to 25 percent this month, according to the memo. Meanwhile, support for DeSantis fell from 13 percent to 9 percent over that same time period. Frontrunner Donald Trump saw his support grow from 36 percent to 40 percent.
In Iowa, support for Haley has grown from 6 percent in early August to 17 percent this month. Support for DeSantis fell from 17 percent to 16 percent during that time, while support for Trump grew from 40 percent to 44 percent.
“I’m honored to have the support of Americans for Prosperity Action, including its millions of grassroots members all across the country,” Haley said in a statement. “AFP Action’s members know that there is too much at stake in this election to sit on the sidelines. 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.”
The DeSantis campaign dismissed the endorsement before it was publicly announced.
“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,” DeSantis campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo said in a statement. “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.”