US business leaders start to rally behind Republican candidate Nikki Haley

NEW YORK - A growing number of United States business leaders are rallying behind former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley as the Republican Party’s presidential hopeful, seeing her as more stable than rival Donald Trump, and more favourable to business interests than incumbent Joe Biden.

“Even if you are a very liberal Democrat, I urge you: Help Nikki Haley too. Get a choice on the Republican side that might be better than Trump,” said Mr Jamie Dimon, who, as head of JPMorgan Chase bank, is often seen as one of the country’s most powerful chief executive officers.

For the last month or so, a growing list of entrepreneurs and business leaders have been lining up behind Trump’s former United Nations ambassador, stumping for her, swelling her campaign coffers or considering doing so as her standing in polls strengthens.

Among them are Mr Charles Koch, one of the biggest donors in US politics, and billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller.

In early December, during a fund-raiser in a luxury apartment on the Upper West Side of New York, Ms Haley raked in more than US$500,000 (S$670,000) in pledges from members of the city’s business elite.

“I think a lot of donors, including business people, were initially sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see how it would shake out, who could be left standing” after months of campaigning, said political science professor David Primo of Rochester University.

As at late October, Ms Haley was polling at less than 10 per cent for the Iowa caucuses, the first vote on the US political calendar on Jan 15, 2024. Now, she stands at nearly 18 per cent, almost on a par with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who has around 19 per cent.

Ms Haley was “impressive in the debates”, said Prof Primo, adding that “business leaders are concerned about the potential instability of another Trump presidency”.

“It seems that she will adhere to the guardrails much more than others,” said Professor Daniel Kinderman of the University of Delaware. “That is something that business leaders, I think, by and large, do appreciate. They do not like it when things get too crazy,” he said.

‘Fiscal discipline’

Ms Haley advocates tax cuts, a gradual return to balanced budgets and raising the minimum retirement age.

“She is committed to fiscal discipline, and fiscal consolidation, and she’s concerned about the national debt,” said Professor Michael Strain of the American Enterprise Institute. “That is a traditional Republican policy view.”

“She has experience as a governor of a state and was viewed as, generally speaking, friendly to business,” said Prof Primo.

“She knows how to interact with business leaders,” he added.

Trump also wants to cut taxes, particularly corporate tax, but talks very little about deficits and debt. His pledge to extend and raise Customs tariffs is of considerable concern in economic circles.

Ms Haley is “not an isolationist, a nativist or a narrow free-trader”, even if she does favour a firmer hand against China, said Professor Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who teaches business management at Yale and regularly surveys economic leaders.

The 51-year-old is even starting to win over some Democrats, such as investor Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn. “Nikki Haley is a competent politician,” he recently told Barron’s magazine, adding that she is “an American institutionalist in terms of our democracy and the rule of law”.

During the Republican primary debate on Dec 6,

one of her rivals, Mr Vivek Ramaswamy, accused Ms Haley of being “corrupt” because of her ties to the business world and, in particular, her support by Mr Hoffman, who he referred to as “George Soros Junior”.

Others also wonder how her big business-friendly image might go over with Republican voters.

“Aren’t you too tight with the banks and the billionaires to win over the GOP’s (Grand Old Party) working-class base, which mostly wants to break the system, not elect someone beholden to it?“ moderator Megyn Kelly asked her during the recent debate.

“When it comes to these corporate people that want to suddenly support us, we will take it,” Ms Haley responded. “But I don’t ask them what their policies are, they ask me what my policies are.”

Beyond Ms Haley’s political differences with Trump, “there is concern about President Trump’s electability”, said Prof Strain.

A recent poll from the Harris Institute gave Ms Haley a better chance against Mr Biden than Trump, who is facing multiple trials in four venues on a host of charges.

“The unusual thing here is to have a candidate 50 points ahead in polls for the primary nomination who is not the strongest candidate in the general election,” said Prof Strain. AFP