The conservative political network largely financed by billionaire Charles Koch endorsed Nikki Haley, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and former governor of South Carolina, for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, marking the end of its search for a candidate to challenge former President Donald Trump.
Americans for Prosperity Action, which traditionally endorses Republican candidates, said in a memo that Haley "has what it takes to lead a policy agenda to take on our nation's biggest challenges and help ensure our country's best days are ahead," CNBC reported.
Haley wrote Tuesday on X that she is "honored to have the support of @AFPAction including its millions of grassroots members all across the country."
She added that the 2024 election "is a choice between freedom & socialism, individual liberty & big government, fiscal responsibility & spiraling debt. We have a country to save."
Americans for Prosperity Action has already spent millions of dollars this year to bash Trump and argues that President Joe Biden would defeat him in a general election.
The Koch-backed network has raised over $70 million in the 2024 election cycle and has an extensive list of volunteers and staff across the U.S. Charles Koch, according to Forbes, has an estimated net worth of more than $50 billion.
The Haley endorsement marks another phase in the complicated relationship between the Koch network and Trump.
During Trump's presidency, Koch-aligned groups were fiercely opposed to his trade war with China but also won numerous policy victories, including the confirmation of three conservative Supreme Court justices and tax cuts.
Trump has also slammed the Koch network through the years, accusing its founders Charles Koch and his late brother, David, of being "globalist" elites who his MAGA supporters hate.
Trump said in a 2018 Twitter comment that the brothers had become a "total joke in real Republican circles, are against Strong Borders and Powerful Trade.”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's campaign said the Koch network's endorsement of Haley is a back-door way of backing Trump. It said that "every dollar spent on Nikki Haley's candidacy should be reported as an in-kind to the Trump campaign."
"Congratulations to Donald Trump on securing the Koch endorsement," DeSantis Communications Director Andrew Romeo said in a statement. "Like clockwork, the pro-open borders, pro-jail break bill establishment is lining up behind a moderate who has no mathematical pathway of defeating the former president. ... No one has a stronger record of beating the establishment than Ron DeSantis, and this time will be no different."