The judgments and ways of politics are, like those of God according to the Bible, unfathomable and inscrutable. Among the few certainties is that in the USA, and especially in a election campaign, he money commands. And it is precisely the dollars that help to answer, even partially, a question that has been repeated since Tuesday, when Donald Trump won his second victory in the primary process in New Hampshire and left his third consecutive presidential nomination practically on track. Why is Nikki Haley still in the race challenging the former president when everything indicates, and almost everyone assumes, that you don’t have any option?
That answer is complex. But a fundamental part of the answer happens because what was ambassador to the UN for Trump and before governor of south carolina maintains, at least for now, the financial support from large donors, which have already helped her to be the only one left in the running against Trump. Because as the case of Ron DeSantis recalled last Sunday, when the tap of donations is turned off and the campaign coffers are emptied, that is when many take the step of abandonment.
Maybe Haley – who in Iowa came third, almost 30 points behind Trump, and in a territory like New Hampshire where she was more inclined due to the weight of the independent and moderate electorate, was also 11 points behind – really thinks, as they say her and her campaign, that the next appointments are a more fertile ground for her aspirations from what the polls indicate (which give Trump an advantage of 30 points in the state she governed and even greater, an average of 50 points, at the national level).
Legal earthquake
It may also be that the policy of 52 years is making considerations to carve out a political future that looks more to 2028 that to this 2024, or that it keeps the options open in case a legal earthquake in one of the four criminal cases Trump faces, or something will happen to a 77 year old candidate.
But her resistance, already being able to feel the growing pressure of the entire apparatus and the efforts that Trump and his allies are going to make to sink and even humiliate her, would not be understood without the support from large donorswhose main objective is prevent a second Trump presidency and, in the case of some conservatives, free the Republican Party from dominance absolute power exercised by the former president.
Haley gets funding from your own campaign, which last year went from raising $7.3 million in the second quarter to $11 million in the third and $24 million in the last. It also has the support of fundraising committees, political action committees and anti-Trump groups as Defending Democracy Together. And it is supported by several Political Action super committeesthose powerful entities in the organizational chart of American politics that They have no limitations when it comes to receiving contributions of organizations, companies and wealthy individuals and that, although they cannot legally be coordinated with the candidate’s campaign, they are vital to maintaining it.
Megadonors
In Haley’s case the main Super PACs are SFA Fundsupported by mega-donors such as billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller and Home Depot co-founder Ken Langone and, since November, Americans for Prosperity. This is the political arm of the organization founded by the conservative brothers Charles and David Koch and also receives important contributions from others such as Jim and Rob Walton, two heirs to the fortune generated with Walmart supermarkets.
According to information compiled by OpenSecrets, outside groups, an amalgam that also includes other super PACs such as Independents Moving the Needle, have already spent almost 75 million dollars supporting itand others 35 million attacking their rivals, more than invested in any other candidate, including Trump. And despite Haley’s disappointing results in Iowa and New Hampshire, many continue to bet on her, with investments already underway in the next states in contention.
Loyalists and desertions
Related news
Several fundraising events with large donorswhich start the January 30th with one in NY organized by three Wall Street billionaires. They will be followed by three others in the city, three in Floridafour in CaliforniaThree in Roof tiles and a last in South Carolina four days before the February 24 primaries. The price to go to each of them varies between $3,300 and $16,600 per ticket.
There is also beginning, however, to be doubts and desertions. He Billionaire Reid Hoffman has decided after the results of Iowa and New Hampshire not to give more money to the SFA Fund, as reported this Wednesday by CNBC citing an anonymous source. He co-founder of LinkedIn, who usually financially supports causes associated with the Democratic party and who has declared his goal of avoiding another Trump presidency, had begun donating after hearing the CEO of JP Morgan Chase, Jamie Damon, urging him to support the candidate. And CNBC also reported that three clients of a Republican fundraiser who had raised $300,000 for Haley are going to stop helping the campaign.