Nikki Haley gets a boost from the Never-Trump group fueled by liberal dark money

• Defending Democracy Together spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads, mailings and phone calls in favor of Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire Republican primary, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
• The organization was co-founded by Bill Kristol, one of the most prominent critics of former President Donald Trump, and has received funding from pro-Democrat dark money groups, per tax forms.
• The Haley campaign distanced itself from the organization in a statement to the Daily Caller News Foundation, saying it is “an unaffiliated outside group that has nothing to do with our campaign.”

A political advocacy group backed by Democratic-aligned dark money organizations has shelled out tens of thousands of dollars to boost Nikki Haley ahead of the New Hampshire primary, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings.

Defending Democracy Together (DDT), an organization co-founded of former Republican Bill Kristol, spent $56,325 in January to boost Haley, and hundreds of thousands were spent opposing former President Donald Trump by buying TV ads, emails and phone calls, among other things, for the FEC DDT has attracted a number of left-wing and Democratic backers over the years, including nonprofits run by dark-money giant Arabella Advisors, which have poured tens of millions of dollars into support Democratic vote exit operations i financing left-wing groups in recent years.

Of the total DDT spent to boost Haley, $51,300 went explicitly to New Hampshire, according to the FEC disclosure.

While Trump dominate national republican primary vote i he won the Iowa caucus easily, New Hampshire is shaping up to be a closer race, with Haley only 13.2 points behind Trump in the state, seconds in the FiveThirtyEight polling average. Haley now faces pressure from some of her top fundraisers to perform well in New Hampshire after finishing third and falling short of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in Iowa. seconds on CNBC News.

Haley's campaign allies believe New Hampshire's demographics could be favorable to her, pointing to her appeal to educated, white-collar suburbanites, The New York Times reported. The former South Carolina governor appears to be leaning toward that idea, with Haley's campaign and its ally PAC spending more than $26 million on ads targeting New Hampshire voters, CNBC reported.

According to the FEC, the January spending spree is the first time the group has been active in an election since June 2021.

“This is an unaffiliated outside group that has nothing to do with our campaign,” a Haley campaign spokesman told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

DDT has received a significant amount of funding from Democratic-aligned or other left-of-center organizations.

Fund Sixteen Thirtya nonprofit run by Arabella Advisors that has spent millions over the years to boost Democrats and fund liberal activists, gave DDT more than $10.8 million between 2020 i 2022 for “civil rights, social action [and] law firm”, according to the tax returns.

Sixteen Thirty distanced itself from DDT's pro-Haley effort, telling the DCNF that it “has not provided any grants in support of Nikki Haley's presidential campaign.”

Nonprofit spent tens of millions funding super PACs supporting Senate Democrats and Joe Biden in 2020, Politico reported. He spent millions more between 2019 and 2020 funding groups that ran ads targeting vulnerable Senate Republicans, the outlet said.

Sixteen Thirty also spent millions on crowdfunding groups pushing Democratic-backed ballot initiatives. The non-profit gave $6.9 million to organizations that supported a pro-abortion ballot measure in Michigan, including $5.7 million in group that got the measure on the ballot.

Hopewell Fund, which is also managed by Arabella Advisors, gave DDT $75,000 in 2018 for “civil rights, social action [and] incidence”, seconds on tax forms.

“Hopewell Fund is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that does not support the election of any political candidate,” the organization told the DCNF.

Hopewell and Sixteen Thirty were not the only major left-of-center donor groups to support DDT.

Democracy Fund Voice, an organization founded and financed from eBay co-founder and liberal donor Pierre Omidyar, gave DDT $4.4 million between 2018 i 2021according to tax returns.

Omidyar, a vocal Trump critic, has one history to donate to anti-Trump efforts. he funded a list of organizations targeted by Facebook for alleged harm caused by hate speech and misinformation on the platform. Omidyar's grantmaking organizations gave $1.2 billion between 2004 and 2020, mostly to left-wing groups, seconds at the Capital Research Center.

Haley has attracted support from a number of traditionally liberal or Democratic donors who see her as a more palatable alternative to Trump.

Reid Hoffman, the billionaire founder of LinkedIn and one of the largest donors to the Democratic Party, gave $250,000 to a pro-Haley super PAC. Hoffman is also linked to Jeffery Epstein, having visited the missing pedophile's island on what he says was a fundraising trip. seconds in the Wall Street Journal.

Other billionaires, like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, have it animated Democrats to support Haley.

“Even if you are [a] Very liberal Democrat, I urge you, you know, to help Nikki Haley as well … on the Republican side, that might be better than Trump,” Dimon said in November 2023.

“I'm an ex-Republican,” Kristol he tweeted on January 14. “But if I were an Iowan, I'd vote for Haley Monday again.”

Kristol, who was vocal proposer of the war in Iraq and supporter by John McCain, attacked by the Republican Party during Trump's presidential campaign in 2016. Kristol arose as the front-runner among Republicans never Trump in 2016, even trying to recruit candidates to challenge him, NBC News reported.

Haley has been steadily gaining ground in the Republican primary race over the past few months. On January 14, he beat DeSantis for the first time on FiveThirtyEight's poll average.

Trump now has 64.6 percent support in the primary, compared to Haley's 12.2 percent, according to FiveThirtyEight.

DDT, Democracy Fund Voice and Longwell Partners did not respond to DCNF's requests for comment.

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