By Elon Musk is not a fan of Nikki Haley. According to the founder of Tesla, Haley has made a deal with the Devil, which has effectively made her campaign dead man walking.
Her campaign is dead
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 7, 2023
Musk, for his part, is a self-described centrist who has said he voted for President Biden in 2020. He said last year that he would support Ron DeSantis if he were to enter the presidential race. However, in August, he called Vivek Ramaswamy a “very promising candidate.” The National Review writes.
DeSantis and Ramaswamy criticized Nikki Haley during the debate on Wednesday for what they described as a cozy relationship with big corporations and wealthy donors.
Debate moderator Megyn Kelly noted Haley left government service in 2018 with just $100,000 in the bank and then has amassed an estimated $8 million in the years that followed thanks to lucrative corporate speeches and board memberships. Kelly asked Haley if she was in too tight with the corporations and billionaires to court average Republican voters.
Haley argued she’s been a “conservative fighter all my life” and said she will “take support from anybody we can take support from.”
We will see how long she can remain a “conservative fighter” while accepting millions from liberals.
For example, Reid Hoffman, the billionaire co-founder of LinkedIn and a major Democratic donor and one of Donald Trump’s fiercest leftwing critics, recently gave a quarter million dollars to Haley’s super PAC as she has picked up momentum.
“The donation, which has not been previously reported, was confirmed by Dmitri Mehlhorn, a political adviser to Mr. Hoffman,” wrote The New York Times.
“The pro-Haley super PAC, SFA Fund Inc., was asked specifically by Mr. Hoffman’s political team if it would take money from Mr. Hoffman, given that he is a Democrat who actively supports President Biden, Mr. Mehlhorn said. The super PAC, he added, said yes.”
Haley has received criticism from conservative commentators over her embrace of the Left, which some suspect is merely propping her up to prevent the strongest conservative in the general election, Ron DeSantis, from winning the primary by splitting the vote. For example, people have been left scratching their heads after her super PAC accepted a huge donation from the “Soros of Silicon Valley.”
Laura Ingraham, for example, said that the former UN Ambassador “appears to be much more comfortable with funders than with voters.”
Even when Haley has received backing from free-market conservatives, she’s taken hits. At the end of November, the Koch political network’s Americans for Prosperity endorsed the former South Carolina governor, viewing her as the best chance to beat Trump and win the presidency.
Jimmy Centers, an Iowa-based Republican strategist who has not endorsed a candidate, called the group’s endorsement “a game changer” for Haley.
“I think the Americans for Prosperity endorsement of Nikki Haley represents the cavalry coming for her in Iowa and other early states,” Centers told the Des Moines Register.
While the leadership at AFP has thrown its weight behind Haley, the staffers working on the ground were not pleased, and they showed it by moving to the Ron DeSantis camp.
The Washington Examiner reported that “Never Back Down, the super PAC supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R-FL) presidential campaign, has poached at least two people affiliated with Americans for Prosperity Action after the group endorsed former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley late last month.
Two grassroots directors in Iowa working for AFP Action, a network connected to conservative billionaire Charles Koch, defected to Never Back Down due to their disapproval of the Haley endorsement, a source familiar with the situation confirmed to the Washington Examiner. They are now working for the super PAC’s Iowa political team.
‘Never Back Down is happy to welcome these newest members of our growing team, and we look forward to welcoming others who see Nikki Haley as the establishment rubber stamp she is and want to support a real conservative leader — Governor Ron DeSantis,’ Noah Jennings, Never Back Down’s Iowa political director, said in a statement.
Dave Vasquez, Never Back Down’s national press secretary, appeared to celebrate the news on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday afternoon.”
🚨Grassroots activists refuse to canvas for the establishment candidate, join the movement to elect @RonDeSantis instead. https://t.co/aaYnRBd8AS
— Dave Vasquez (@DaveVasquezFL) December 6, 2023
Americans for Prosperity leadership downplayed the moves, telling The Examiner, “This is primary season, and with a grassroots organization as large as AFP Action, it’s not unusual at all to see some individuals move to different campaigns or pursue other opportunities. But AFP Action has also heard from a number of people excited about our endorsement and interested in ways they can join our team and help the effort — including people who work on behalf of the same campaigns pushing this narrative. Since our endorsement, we’ve added more than 120 new volunteers and are contacting more voters than before.”
Currently, DeSantis is the favorite “Not Trump” candidate in Iowa, whereas Haley has begun making her move against the former president and GOP frontrunner in New Hampshire.
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