Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley cannot seem to please anyone before the fourth and possibly last 2024 Republican primary debate this week.
Democrats are portraying Haley as an "extreme" Republican, while Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and his allies are undermining her GOP credentials amid her rise in the polls, in addition to her newfound favor with high-profile supporters and deep-pocketed donors. But she remains 30 percentage points behind former President Donald Trump in Iowa, six weeks before the opening nominating contest.
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DeSantis's criticism is not unexpected since Haley "staked out a relatively moderate position on the abortion issue in the first debate," according to Middlebury College politics professor Bertram Johnson.
"Painting her as a moderate might help in the general election, but it could hurt her with a very conservative primary electorate, and that’s a hurdle she’ll have to overcome first unless she’s contemplating an independent run," Johnson told the Washington Examiner.
DeSantis's campaign seized on Democratic donor Reid Hoffman, the co-founder of LinkedIn, contributing $250,000 to Haley's super political action committee, Stand For America, Inc., as it scrutinizes her for not only being an establishment candidate but a liberal darling.
"It makes perfect sense that liberal Democrat billionaires would support Nikki Haley's bid for the White House because she is a liberal," DeSantis spokesman Bryan Griffin told reporters Tuesday. "She would let corporations set immigration policy, roll out the red carpet for China, hike taxes on hardworking Americans, and require social media users to register with the government."
Hoffman, who co-hosted a fundraiser for Biden in San Francisco last June, asked SFA first before transferring the money, according to the New York Times. The development underscores the DeSantis campaign's attacks on Haley as aides amplify their therealnikki.com website, which contends Haley "is supportive of every liberal cause under the sun."
JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon told business leaders last week to "help” her to “get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump."
"I think Nikki Haley really represents the last gasp of a failed establishment," DeSantis told Fox News this week. "She's out of step with a vast, vast majority of Republican voters. But I think some of those elements are people that really want to take the party back to a failed establishment of yesteryear. And that we know for sure will not happen."
Haley spokesman Ken Farnaso declined to spin DeSantis's complaints, which include comments Haley made in 2012 to Vogue about being uncertain whether she was a Democrat or Republican and being inspired to run as governor of South Carolina by Hillary Clinton, as evidence of her broad-base appeal, a possible benefit in a general election.
“This is the sign of a desperate, losing candidate," he said. "As Ron DeSantis drops in the polls, Nikki Haley has surged into second place in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina because voters know she is the best candidate to take on Donald Trump and Joe Biden.”
Haley has defended her record, describing it not as an establishment but one that is syncopated with the tea party, which propelled her career in her home state.
"There's nothing establishment when you have Americans for Prosperity, the most conservative grassroots organization in the country, come out and endorse me because they like my economic plans and my plans for the future of America," she told Fox News.
Americans for Prosperity is a libertarian political advocacy group connected to Charles and the late David Koch and has publicly condemned Trump.
"He's grasping at this point, but we're staying focused," Haley said. "Our goal is to win the support of every Iowan, every Granite Stater, every South Carolinian, and every American. We're going to keep on working harder than everybody else and keep working smarter than everybody because we have a country to save."
To that end, Haley has increased her support in Iowa from an average of 5% to 14% since the first debate in Milwaukee last August, while DeSantis's has stayed almost the same from 17.2% last summer to 17.3% now, according to RealClearPolitics.
Meanwhile, Democrats are emphasizing their concerns about what a Haley presidency would mean for the country. Haley has an average 5-point lead over Biden in hypothetical general election matchup polling between the pair, 47% to 42%, according to RealClearPolitics. Trump has a 2-point advantage over Biden, while DeSantis has a 1-point edge over the incumbent.
The Democratic National Committee sent out a press release Tuesday, repeating Haley is "hellbent" on ending Social Security and Medicare and that she is trying to "gut" Social Security, not "reform" it. In a statement, DNC spokeswoman Sarafina Chitika said, “If you think Nikki Haley is a moderate, then you haven’t been paying attention."
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"Voters know better," she said. "While Haley campaigns on ending Social Security and Medicare as we know them, threatening the health and financial security of America’s seniors, voters are watching — they’ve rejected this extreme, MAGAnomics agenda before and they’ll do so again next November.”
Trump is missing Wednesday's debate at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. DeSantis, Haley, former biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie have qualified for this iteration.