Koch-Backed Group Gives Haley Fighting Chance In GOP Primary

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley recently got what would be an enormous boost to her chance of winning the party's nomination: the backing of a massive, deep-pocketed campaign network:

Billionaire Charles Koch's political network is backing the Republican presidential bid of Nikki Haley, the latest sign some big donors are moving her way in a long-shot bid to block former President Donald Trump from winning the GOP nomination.

Americans for Prosperity Action, a conservative group led and partly financed by Koch, said Tuesday that it would support the former South Carolina Governor and United Nations Ambassador. The organization's support boosts Haley as the campaign enters the final seven weeks before the first nominating contest in Iowa.

But these are hardly normal times for the GOP, which appears more interested in encouraging ex-president Donald Trump's revenge fantasies than it does in much else.

And they are hardly normal times for the Kochtopus, either. It finds itself engaged in a struggle against a candidate (Trump) whose many, manifest, and increasingly bizarre faults and foibles don't seem to faze his supporters at all.

As others opposing Trump in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses have discovered, his supporters appear immune to argument, persuasion, and whatever other tactics campaigns have at hand.

At least so far. Until the voting starts, we won't know whether that support is genuine or merely a polling relic. On that score, Haley's new backer offers both the resources and reach to keep her in the fight long after the also-rans (here's looking at you, Gov. Christie) have dropped out of the race.

And sticking around to fight matters a lot in 2024. Recall that Donald Trump is perhaps the best fundraiser, organizer, and turnout effort Democrats have ever had. Remember those Trump coattails? No? That's because they didn't exist for Republicans running on the same ticket with him:

The only time Trump has had a chance to exhibit his coattail pull came on Nov. 8, 2016, when he was elected with a solid 304 electoral votes but only 46.1% of the popular vote — 2.1 percentage points behind Democrat Hillary Clinton. Of the 241 Republican House candidates elected simultaneously, Trump outran just 24 of them — or, put another way, one out of 10. It was the smallest demonstration of coattail pull by a presidential winner since 1992, when Bill Clinton's 43% of the vote in a three-way race with President George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot enabled him to run ahead of just five House Democrats.

We've no idea whether a Nikki Haley-led ticket would have sufficient coattails to usher in Republican congressional majorities. But Haley would be exceedingly hard-pressed to do worse than Trump did in 2016 (never mind his kryptonite-like effect on the GOP up and down the ballot in 2018, 2020, and in the 2022 mid-terms).

The Koch network's endorsement of Haley gives her a chance to dethrone Trump – not a guarantee. It also sends a clear signal to the rest of the GOP field: your time is up.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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