Koch-affiliated group backs Nikki Haley for president

The political wing of the conservative network led by billionaire Charles Koch has endorsed former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley for president, throwing its weight behind a top Republican challenger to former President Trump.

Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP) released a memo Tuesday backing Haley, who served as ambassador to the U.N. during the Trump administration, arguing she is the strongest candidate to defeat Trump in the GOP primaries as well as President Biden in next year’s general election.

This marks the first time the deep-pocketed group has thrown its support behind a Republican candidate in a presidential primary and opens up vast resources for Haley’s challenge to Trump.

“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,” reads the memo from AFP senior adviser Emily Seidel.

“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,” it continued.

The memo stated the group was getting involved in a presidential primary for the first time because it wants a candidate who will “turn the page on the past.” It added that Trump and Biden “will only further perpetuate the country’s downward spiral in politics.”

This comes nearly a year after the conservative network signaled it would not back Trump in the Republican primary, saying it would support a candidate “who represents a new chapter.” The endorsement demonstrates the group’s attempt to distance the Republican Party from Trump, who the group said would lose to Biden.

“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, winning the key independent and moderate voters that Trump has no chance to win,” the memo states.

Haley has battled Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the top challenger to Trump in the GOP race and has seen her standing in polls tick up amid several strong debate performances. Trump, for his part, has maintained large leads in polls both nationally and in early voting states.

DeSantis’s campaign panned the AFP Action endorsement in a statement released Tuesday, saying “the establishment is lining up behind a moderate who has no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president.”

AFP Action acknowledged DeSantis in its memo, praising him as “a strong advocate for many important freedom-oriented policies and fiscal responsibility in the Sunshine State.” The group noted that it endorsed his successful gubernatorial reelection bid last year.

“We also understand that some of the Governor’s supporters, including some who support AFP, will be disappointed in our decision,” the memo reads. “However, as the 2024 primary season heats up, we are entering a time period that demands choices. Donald Trump won the nomination in 2016 largely because of a divided primary field, and we must not allow that to happen again, particularly when the stakes are even higher in 2024.”

The Make America Great Again PAC also took aim at AFP Action and DeSantis shortly after the endorsement on Tuesday. The statement accused the group of lighting “millions of dollars on fire this primary only to watch President Donald Trump’s lead grow.”

“The Ron DeSantis campaign finally got it right when they bitterly attacked Americans for Prosperity for being a vessel of globalist shills. That’s exactly why AFP backed Ron DeSantis in his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial races,” Caroline Leavitt, spokeswoman for Make America Great Again, said in a statement.

Haley welcomed the group’s endorsement in a statement, reiterating that the 2024 election “is a choice between freedom and socialism, individual liberty and big government, fiscal responsibility and spiraling debt.”

Updated at 3:44 pm.