Nikki Haley, the USA Ambassador to the United Nations speaks during a gathering with US President Donald Trump speaks within the Oval office of the White House October 9, 2018 in Washington, DC.
Olivier Douliery | AFP | Getty Images
Nikki Haley, the previous U.S. ambassador to the United Nations under former President Donald Trump, has hired key staff and is canvassing potential donors as she explores a presidential run against her former boss in 2024, in response to people briefed on her plans.
Haley is putting together a national finance committee and communications team upfront of a possible campaign, these people explained. A few of the latest hires have been directed to report for work at Haley’s nonprofit Stand for America Inc. and her political motion committee Stand for America PAC in Charleston, S.C., by Feb. 1, these people added. The entire individuals who spoke with CNBC asked to not be named because Haley’s plans aren’t public and will still change.
Political consultant Mary Kate Johnson, meanwhile, has been reaching out on Haley’s behalf to major political donors in recent days to gauge their interest in joining the finance committee, two of those people added.
Johnson has worked closely with Haley lately, raising money through her consulting company MKJ Inc. for each Haley’s nonprofit in addition to her political motion committee, tax records, federal election commission filings and native business records show.
Haley has not formally announced a presidential bid but has strongly hinted at the chance, recently telling Fox News she was “leaning in” to a possible 2024 White House run and that the Republicans need a candidate who can win a general election against President Joe Biden. A Haley spokesperson didn’t return requests for comment.
U.S. President Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama attend a campaign for Democratic U.S. senatorial candidate John Fetterman and Democratic nominee for Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. November 5, 2022.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
Some corporate leaders have suggested interest in supporting Haley if she runs for president.
Veteran hedge fund manager Paul Singer has donated each to Haley’s nonprofit and her PAC, in response to Federal Election Commission filings and a nonprofit record obtained by Politico. Singer donated $270,000 to the nonprofit in 2019 and $5,000 to the PAC two years later, the records show. Billionaire conservative donor Miriam Adelson, the wife of the late Las Vegas Sands Corp. founder Sheldon Adelson, is a key donor to Haley’s PAC, which raised over $17 million within the 2022 election cycle and went into the 2024 cycle with over $2 million available.
Paul Singer
David A. Grogan | CNBC
Singer privately told friends in Trump’s final 12 months in office that Haley could possibly be a powerful contender for president, in response to a one who overheard his remarks.
More recently, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman predicted on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that Haley might be the Republican presidential nominee, in response to Semafor.
Representatives for Gorman and Singer didn’t return requests for comment.
Haley recently hired political consultant Nachama Soloveichik to assist lead her communications team if the previous South Carolina governor jumps into the race, certainly one of the people said. Soloveichik’s LinkedIn says she has experience working for retired Republican Sen. Pat Toomey’s campaign in addition to the Club for Growth, a conservative outside group.
Soloveichik can be listed as a partner on the political consulting firm ColdSpark, which received $405,000 through the 2022 election cycle from Haley’s PAC, in response to data from the nonpartisan OpenSecrets.
Haley also tapped Betsy Ankney, a former political director for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, to run the PAC, in response to Axios. Longtime Haley advisor Jon Lerner, will likely have leadership roles inside a Haley presidential campaign, two of the people said.
Twitter pages for Soloveichik and Ankney each say that they are on “Team Nikki Haley.”
Johnson, Ankney, Lerner and Soloveichik didn’t return requests for comment.
Haley has publicly hinted in two recent interviews with Fox News that she could possibly be able to run for president. “I believe I could be that leader,” Haley said in certainly one of them, while declining to explicitly announce a White House bid. She pointed to her experience as Trump’s U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and previously as governor of South Carolina.
Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley speaks to the largely virtual 2020 Republican National Convention in a live address from the Mellon Auditorium in Washington, U.S., August 24, 2020.
Kevin Lemarque | Reuters
Trump, who lost his reelection bid to Biden in 2020, is the one candidate thus far to leap into the 2024 presidential race.
Haley’s apparent mobilization for a White House bid is hardly a surprise to anyone who has followed the previous governor during or after her time within the Trump administration. She needed to bat away questions on a possible 2020 presidential bid while sitting next to Trump within the Oval Office as he announced her departure from the U.N. in 2018.
But her recent moves, and not-so-subtle hints a couple of run, reflect more urgency at this early point within the presidential cycle than a lot of her could-be competitors.
A slew of other Republicans — most notably Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, but in addition former Vice President Mike Pence, ex-Latest Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — are widely purported to be assembling their very own 2024 campaigns.
Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks to a crowd of supporters on the University Club of Chicago on June 20, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois.
Jim Vondruska | Getty Images
But none thus far have been as explicit as Haley. If she is the subsequent to announce a run for president, she might be just the second candidate to have officially jumped within the 2024 race — after Trump.
A minimum of for a time, that may pit Haley directly against Trump, an ungainly spot that many Republicans have taken pains to avoid.
While his stature within the GOP could also be diminished after his loss to Biden, the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and the underperformance of a lot of his handpicked candidates within the November midterms, a slew of polls show Trump stays a dominant force within the Republican Party.
Haley, like other Republican figures who initially swore Trump off after his election-denial claims spurred lots of of his supporters to swarm the Capitol, reverted to a position of support afterward. She even said in 2021 that she would not run for president in 2024 if Trump was on the ballot.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump proclaims that he’ll once more run for U.S. president within the 2024 U.S. presidential election during an event at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, November 15, 2022.
Jonathan Ernst | Reuters
Asked Friday about possibly backtracking on that stance, Haley said “loads has modified,” pointing to the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan and other issues, comparable to inflation and “drugs infesting all of our states.”
The 51-year-old politician also made a case for ushering in a younger generation of leaders: “Whenever you’re the long run of America, I believe it is time for brand new generational change. I do not think you want to be 80 years old to go be a frontrunner in D.C.”
Still, some recent public polls show Trump far ahead of his would-be opponents — including Haley.
A Morning Seek the advice of poll released last week, as an example, shows Trump backed by 48% of Republican primary voters, while just 2% of respondents said they’d pick Haley.
One other survey published Friday by Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll once more showed Trump winning the support of 48% of Republican voters in a hypothetical primary fight. Haley garnered just 3% support from that poll, which showed her below Pence and tied with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio.
Haley seems undeterred by the early polls. She posted each Fox clips of her discussing possibly running for president on her Twitter page, with one tweet saying “It is time for a latest generation. It is time for brand new leadership. And it is time to take our country back. America is well worth the fight—and we’re just getting began.”