Koch Network Endorses Nikki Haley in Bid to Push G.O.P. Past Trump

[Dill]

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/28/us/politics/koch-network-nikki-haley-endorsement-trump.html?campaign_id=190&emc=edit_ufn_20231128&instance_id=108773&nl=from-the-times&regi_id=115336211&segment_id=151155&te=1&user_id=98d040cfc463129084276e2affe091f0

The political network founded by the billionaire industrialist brothers Charles and David Koch has endorsed Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential nominating contest, giving her organizational muscle and financial heft as she battles Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida to be the top rival to former President Donald J. Trump.

The group announced its plans in a memo on Tuesday.

The commitment by the network, Americans for Prosperity Action, bolsters Ms. Haley as the campaign enters the final seven weeks before the Iowa caucuses. Since the first Republican primary debate, Ms. Haley has steadily climbed in polls, even as Mr. DeSantis has slipped. Mr. Trump remains the dominant front-runner in the race.

“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,” reads the memo from Emily Seidel, a senior adviser to Americans for Prosperity Action, who adds that Ms. Haley would win “the key independent and moderate voters that Trump has no chance to win.”

The memo goes on to say that the country “is being ripped apart by extremes on both sides,” adding: “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.”...

Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s campaign, said in a statement, “Americans for Prosperity — the political arm of the China First, America Last movement — has chosen to endorse a pro-China, open borders, and globalist candidate in Nikki ‘Birdbrain’ Haley,” adding that no amount of “shady money” would stop Mr. Trump from winning the Republican nomination and the election.

Over the past few years, the Koch network has spent tens of millions of dollars opposing the foreign policy views that Ms. Haley has espoused. She has been among the most hawkish in the Republican presidential field on aid to Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, while the Koch-backed group Concerned Veterans for America has opposed American involvement in that conflict.

Ms. Haley has also criticized the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a policy change that the Koch network campaigned aggressively to bring about. And she has advocated military strikes in Iran, while the Koch foreign policy operation has opposed military action against the country.

[Dill]

https://afpaction.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/AFPA-Endorsement-Memo-.pdf

Earlier this year, when Americans for Prosperity Action announced our 2024 political strategy, we shared our
candid assessment of how our broken politics was standing in the way of advancing good policy. But we also
saw an opportunity to help ensure a brighter future for our country.

As we said in February, American politics are in a downward spiral, with both parties reinforcing the bad
behavior of the other:
• Republicans have been nominating bad candidates who are going against America’s core principles.
And voters are rejecting them.
• Democrats see this as an opportunity and are responding with extreme policies that also cut against
core American principles.

At a time in our country when millions of Americans are struggling, broken politics have made it nearly
impossible to advance needed solutions to record inflation, border security, skyrocketing health care costs,
and more. The good news is that AFP Action is in a position to do something about it.

We know to elect better leaders, we need better candidates. And that means we need to engage earlier and in
more primaries. As the presidential candidates set the tone for the entire election – we decided earlier this year
to start our work in primaries at the top of the ticket: the Republican presidential primary.

As many of you know, AFP Action has never engaged in a presidential election before, but as we said in
February, to write a new chapter for our country, we need to turn the page on the past. Donald Trump and Joe
Biden will only further perpetuate the country’s downward spiral in politics. Furthermore, a significant
majority of voters want somebody new. The American people have shown they’re ready to move on from the
current political era, so AFP Action will help them do that.

A Candidate Who Can Turn the Page and Win

As you know, this summer and into the fall, we have been engaging voters and watching the candidates,
seeing how they campaign, listening to what issues and themes they focus on, how they articulate their
principles and policy positions, manage their operation, and whether they resonate with voters.

Since the announcement in February, Americans for Prosperity has already reached out - either through door
knocks or phone calls - to more than 6 million voters to talk to them about the issues they care about and the
candidates they support to understand what’s important to them and how they’ll ultimately decide who they
support in next year’s primary. AFP Action has since acquired that data to analyze it as part of our decisionmaking process and put it to work behind a candidate.
The results are incredibly encouraging: The American people are ready to move on, with nearly 75% of
Republican primary voters saying they are open to supporting a candidate other than Donald Trump. In
addition, nearly 60% of the Republican voters AFP spoke with who have never voted in a primary or caucus
say they are “extremely enthusiastic” to vote for the first time.
It’s now time to help rally those voters behind a candidate who can win the primary and win the general
election.

At the outset of our strategy, we made clear that we would be business-like in our decision. We would support
a candidate capable of turning the page on Washington’s toxic culture – and a candidate who can win. And
last night, we concluded that analysis....

Why Nikki Haley is the Best Choice for Our Country

When we set out to change the broken politics of Washington, we made clear that we would back a candidate
who could turn the page on today’s toxic culture and lead our country forward. But you can’t advance good
policy unless you win. Our internal polling confirms what our activists are hearing and seeing from voters in
the early primary states: Nikki Haley is in the best position to defeat Donald Trump in the primaries. Between
her surging to second place in the polls since August and being well-positioned amongst supporters of the
other candidates, she is in a strong position to gather more support. In addition, our internal polling
consistently shows that Nikki Haley is by far the strongest candidate Republicans could put up against Joe
Biden in a general election – winning every key battleground state and up nationally by nearly 10 points.
While our polling shows Donald Trump loses to Joe Biden, Nikki Haley outperforms Trump by 8 to 14 points
in the key Presidential battleground states.

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.