DES MOINES, Iowa — Nikki Haley refuses to let a feud with former President Donald Trump disrupt her 2024 preparations, with plans to barnstorm Iowa to raise big money for prominent elected Republicans and the state party.
The former United States ambassador to the United Nations was scheduled to headline an Iowa Republican Party Lincoln Dinner Thursday evening, with the 500-plus tickets for the event selling out quickly. On Friday, Haley was to head to Clear Lake, a wealthy lakeside enclave in Northern Iowa, to keynote a fundraiser for Gov. Kim Reynolds. The gathering was expected to reel in a massive haul for the Republican chief executive.
Haley has not let a public spat with Trump over his handling of the post-election period slow her efforts to boost Republicans on the 2022 ballot nor diminish her growing political operation. The former ambassador’s demand in Iowa, a crucial early presidential caucus state where Republicans have enthusiastically supported Trump, is a positive development for her 2024 prospects.
“The Haley fundraiser is going to be huge,” a Republican operative in Iowa said. “The question is the dinner. Everybody in that room is a died-in-the-wool caucus goer.”
DEMOCRATS POISED TO GO IT ALONE INVESTIGATING JAN. 6 CAPITOL RIOT
Trump nominated Haley, then-governor of South Carolina, to serve as ambassador to the U.N. soon after winning the presidency in 2016. Their relationship was rock solid during her two-year tenure in New York and for two years after that, despite her initial resistance to his candidacy during his first campaign. Haley even managed to avoid Trump’s wrath when she broke with him on certain policy matters.
But their rapport fractured this year after Haley criticized Trump in a splashy feature story in Politico magazine. The former ambassador chastised Trump because he would not concede defeat to President Joe Biden, and she held him responsible for the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Haley has since tried to make amends but has been rebuffed by the former president.
That friction has not translated into rejection by other high-profile Republicans.
Haley’s Iowa itinerary includes:
- Event with elected women Republicans and Linda Upmeyer, the first-ever female speaker of the Iowa House of Representatives.
- Roundtable discussion with former U.S. ambassador to China under Trump and former Iowa governor Terry Branstad.
- Headline combined event for the Story County GOP and Young Republicans of Iowa.
- Headline fundraiser for Iowa House Speaker Pat Grassley and the state House GOP caucus.
- Headline fundraisers for Reps. Randy Feenstra and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.
Some grassroots Republicans in Iowa have soured on Haley since the blowup with Trump, although suspicion of the former ambassador was prevalent before this episode. That’s why Thursday’s Lincoln Dinner in Des Moines, in a room filled with activists, could foretell Haley’s political future or at least clarify her baseline support with primary voters. The Iowa caucus is expected to reprise its traditional role as the first contest on the GOP’s presidential nominating calendar.
Haley receiving invitations from the state party and elected Republicans to visit and lend a headline-grabbing hand in their 2022 campaigns is significant. Republican activists flocked to Trump, helping the former president win the perennial swing state twice by wide margins. Haley would presumably be shunned or ignored if she did not have the political juice with voters and donors to be effective on their behalf.
“The reception has been really good,” Iowa GOP spokesman Kollin Crompton said about the response to Haley as the choice to keynote this year’s Lincoln Dinner.
Meanwhile, in addition to hosting a fundraiser for Feenstra, Haley is joining the congressman to tour small businesses in the rural 4th Congressional District of Northwest Iowa he represents.
“He’s thrilled to have Ambassador Haley’s help,” a source close to the Feenstra campaign said. “She’s also done a couple of [fundraising] emails for the congressman that were helpful.”
Several Republicans eyeing 2024 bids have paraded through Iowa in the months since Trump left office. The state party and top Iowa Republicans attempt to rotate invitations to headline major events to various contenders. Next week, Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas will be the special guest at an evening reception in Sioux Center organized by the Iowa GOP. In mid-July, Feenstra is hosting former Vice President Mike Pence at an annual “family picnic.”
Haley, 49, has been a rising Republican star for more than a decade since winning a gubernatorial primary as a conservative insurgent, outmaneuvering more established candidates. Serving in Trump’s Cabinet, she caught the attention of Republican insiders looking for a presidential candidate who could bridge the disparate wings of the party and who believe the GOP would have a better chance of winning the White House with a nominee who is neither white nor male.
Her ability to fulfill that role was threatened by infighting with Trump. But Haley has not been deterred, returning to the road almost immediately and following through with plans to campaign for Republicans running for Congress to help the party win back the House and Senate. The former ambassador is also aiding Republicans running for the state legislature in states like Iowa, where allies at that level could come in handy in 2024.
Some Republicans say Haley’s perseverance reveals a politician with the mettle for a presidential campaign. These Republicans think voters may find it appealing, too.
“It shows how nimble a politician she is. And she’s smart,” GOP strategist Jim Dornan said. “She may have initially misread Trump’s influence, and she adjusted. That might have derailed a lesser candidate, but she took it in stride and moved on. That will impress a lot of voters.”
A spokesman for Haley declined to comment on this story.
