Donald Trump has maintained dominance in Republican presidential primary polling, but the big-money Republicans who don’t think he’s a good general election candidate have kept looking for someone to knock him down. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis fizzled. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina went absolutely nowhere. But the Koch brothers-founded Americans for Prosperity Action now thinks it has the one: former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.
An endorsement memo from the super PAC’s senior adviser Emily Seidel lays out the case, saying, “Republicans have been nominating bad candidates who are going against America’s core principles. And voters are rejecting them.” (Translation: Trump and Trumpists.) The group says internal polling shows Haley is best positioned to beat Trump in the Republican primary and win the general election, and she’ll be good for Republicans:
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.
