Haley Announces Major Push To Replace DeSantis
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley set aside $10 million for a major campaign push to overtake Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as the Republican alternative to former President Donald Trump.
The massive advertising surge targets Iowa and New Hampshire and will begin the first week of December. Haley’s message will spread on TV, radio and digital media and run through the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary.
By comparison, DeSantis is scheduled for a $2 million ad campaign in the Hawkeye State.
With Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-SC) announcement that he is out of the race, the GOP field narrowed further this week. But the only battle remaining is apparently for second place as Trump far outpaces the pack.
There is still considerable jockeying for that second position. If successful, Haley will be poised to stake her claim as a viable option to the 45th president.
The latest RealClearPolitics cumulative figures show the former president with 58.5% of Republican support. This is dramatically higher than DeSantis at 14.4% and Haley’s 9%.
In Iowa, the latest figures are better for the former U.N. ambassador. According to the Des Moines Register/NBC News/Mediacom Iowa poll released earlier this month, Haley and DeSantis are tied in the state with 16%.
Meanwhile, Trump was the favored candidate for 43% of Iowa GOP voters.
New Hampshire is shaping up even better for Haley. An October Suffolk University/Boston Globe/USA Today survey gave her 19% of the state’s Republican electorate to only 10% for DeSantis.
Trump was still far ahead with 49%.
The mindset among Trump’s challengers may well be that he will falter in the face of four criminal indictments from leftist prosecutors. Democrats are pulling out all stops to disqualify him and even seek to remove him from the ballot in battleground states.
With this in mind, second place may be an opportune position if radical Democrats succeed.
Haley’s campaign did not specify if her massive advertising package would target only DeSantis or go after Trump personally. Following the jockeying between Haley and DeSantis at the third Republican debate last week, the table is set for confrontation in the American heartland.
