Photo by Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
Nikki Haley was the GOP establishment’s last gasp at regaining control of the party from Donald Trump.
They’re facing some tough decisions after her Presidential campaign crashed and burned.
And Nikki Haley was blindsided when the establishment made this shocking decision about 2024.
Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley’s Presidential campaign is coming to the end of the road.
She was blown out by former President Donald Trump in her home state of South Carolina’s Primary.
The latest crushing defeat for Haley was enough for the top financial backer of her campaign to decide to cut bait.
Group spending millions on Nikki Haley pulls the plug
Americans for Prosperity (AFP) Action, a PAC backing Haley’s Presidential campaign, decided to stop spending in support of her after she was trounced in South Carolina.
The group had spent big on behalf of Haley during her Presidential campaign.
“A spokesperson for AFP Action declined to say how much the organization spent boosting Haley’s campaign. In addition to television, digital and mail ads, AFP Action deployed hundreds of field workers on the ground to knock doors in the early states,” POLITICO reported.
Americans For Prosperity CEO Emily Seidel said that the group wanted to “take stock” of their financial support of Haley after her loss in South Carolina.
“Nikki Haley has shown us again and again that we made the right decision in supporting her candidacy and she continues to have our strong endorsement,” Seidel wrote in an internal email to staffers. “She has made it clear that she will continue to fight and we wholeheartedly support her in this effort. But given the challenges in the primary states ahead, we don’t believe any outside group can make a material difference to widen her path to victory.”
This is a massive blow to Haley’s campaign and a sign the GOP establishment knows that the end is near for her.
AFP Action and its affiliates are estimated to have spent tens of millions of dollars backing Haley to try and keep Trump from winning the GOP nomination.
That money was poured down the drain on a candidate who’s lost every contest in the Primary by double digits.
Establishment panicking over Donald Trump
AFP Action has opposed Donald Trump since 2015 and with Haley out of the race, they predicted doom for Republicans with Trump at the top of the ticket.
“The last 3 election cycles have painted a very clear picture of what we can expect from voters who consistently rejected Donald Trump and his impact on the Republican Party brand. This has been reinforced by the recent elections in Virginia in 2023 and the special elections in New York and Pennsylvania just this month. And we should expect this to increase further as the criminal trials progress,” Seidel wrote in the email.
The establishment has always predicted doom with Trump at the top of the ticket but he’s polling better than at any point during his last two campaigns.
Nikki Haley was the last, best hope for the Republican establishment.
Now they’re being forced to confront the fact that Donald Trump is going to be the GOP nominee.
Election Buzz will keep you up-to-date on any developments to this ongoing story.
