AFP Action, the conservative wing of the powerful and influential conservative group Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has pulled funding for Nikki Haley’s presidential campaign.
In an email to staff obtained by Fox News, AFP Action senior adviser Emily Seidel said the group did not believe “any outside group can make a material difference in broadening (Haley’s) path to victory.” .
“And while we will continue to support her, we will focus our resources where we can make a difference. And that is the United States Senate and House of Representatives,” Seidel wrote.
Nikki Haley, former South Carolina governor and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, during an election night watch party in Charleston, South Carolina, U.S., Saturday, February 24, 2024. (Christian Monterrosa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The news was first reported by Politico early Sunday.
AFP Action endorsed Haley in November, giving her a major grassroots and organizing boost.
The deep-pocketed, fiscally conservative network launched an ad campaign on Haley’s behalf in January, including banner ads, digital ads and connected TV spots.
AFP Action, which pledged to spend tens of millions of dollars to help propel the Republican Party past former President Trump when it endorsed Haley in late November, said last month it was committing an initial $27 million to this new wave of his ongoing campaign.
TOP HIGHLIGHTS FROM SOUTH CAROLINA GOP PRIMARY WHERE TRUMP WON BIG, HALEY PROMISED TO KEEP FOLLOWING
The news came after Haley’s Republican rival, former President Trump, captured the party’s nomination in Haley’s home state of South Carolina on Saturday.
Despite the loss and defying calls to drop out of the race, Haley has said it’s not the “end of our story” while traveling to Michigan on Sunday ahead of Tuesday’s state primary.
Republican presidential candidate and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley speaks during her primary election night rally at The Charleston Place on February 24, 2024 in Charleston, South Carolina. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
In the less than 24 hours after her Saturday night loss, Haley’s campaign said she had raised $1 million “from her grassroots supporters alone,” an increase they argued “demonstrates the staying power of Haley and her appeal to broad sections of the American public.
But Sunday also saw the end of support for Haley’s campaign from Americans for Prosperity, the political arm of the powerful Koch network.
With his victory Saturday in the race for first in the South, Trump has now swept every primary or caucus on the GOP’s early-season calendar that rewards delegates. His actions have left little room for maneuver for Haley, his former ambassador to the UN.
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Still, Haley insists she will stay despite mounting pressure to abandon her candidacy and allow Trump to focus entirely on Democratic President Joe Biden in a 2020 rematch.