Haley backers' spending surges in Republican's last-ditch White House bid
By Jason Lange, Alexandra Ulmer and Gram Slattery
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Republican Nikki Haley's deep-pocketed allies have turbo-charged spending on her presidential bid in recent weeks, a last-ditch effort to boost her chances against frontrunner Donald Trump in party nomination contests that start next month.
The SFA Fund Inc, a pro-Haley super PAC funded by business titans including former WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum, has spent over $21 million on ads and mailings backing her White House run in the nearly three months since her breakout performance in a Sept. 27 Republican debate, according to a Reuters analysis of its financial disclosures to the Federal Election Commission.
The spending was higher than that of any other super PAC during the period and a major increase from the $14 million that SFA Fund spent backing Haley, a former South Carolina governor who served as U.N. ambassador under Trump, in the three months before the debate.
In both periods, SFA Fund's outlays have been more than double the reported spending by the biggest pro-Trump super PAC, which is known as MAGA Inc. Super PACs are allowed to raise and spend unlimited sums supporting candidates but are not allowed to coordinate activity with the candidates they back.
The wave of pro-Haley spending is a sign of resistance from wealthy donors to what many — including top party officials — see as Trump's inevitable clinching of the Republican nomination to face incumbent President Joe Biden, a Democrat, in the Nov. 5 2024 presidential election.
«What remains to be seen – and what GOP elected officials seem skeptical about – is whether that extra money will win her any primaries against Trump, let alone the nomination,» said Michael Robinson Byrd, a
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