Republican 2024 presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is attracting the attention of large donors after her performance in the two Republican National Committee debates, Politico reported Friday.
According to the report, Haley sold out a $25,000 per couple fundraising dinner in Los Angeles on Thursday, one day after taking part in the second RNC debate at the Reagan library in Simi Valley, California.
The report said the event even had a waiting list, and individual $1,000 donors are reaching out to the campaign to do more.
"From the very beginning, I talked to donors that were eager for that campaign to kind of come out guns blazing," Ozzie Palomo, a Connecticut-based GOP donor, told the news outlet. "To her campaign's credit, they've had a methodical approach from day one, and they stuck to it."
Palomo attended Wednesday's debate to show support for Haley and said he appreciates the caution with which her campaign is using the money people are donating.
"They said, 'Here’s how we're going to spend it.' From a donor perspective, you appreciate that. You have a lot of campaigns out there; they get a large infusion of cash and burn through it very quickly on things that may not necessarily deliver results in the polls and with the electorate."
Even though she is hovering around third place, way behind the leader, former President Donald Trump, she is holding her ground in national polling and has seen a bump following her debate performances, according to Politico.
"A lot of Americans still don't know who she is," Haley campaign spokesperson Olivia Perez-Cubas told Politico. "She's still introducing herself."
The national polling website FiveThirtyEight has Haley virtually tied for third place with businessman Vivek Ramaswamy with 6.5% to his 6.6%.
Trump, who did not attend either of the GOP debates, leads the GOP pack with 55.1% followed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis with 13.5%, according to the website.
The Hill reported Haley as one of the winners of Wednesday night's debate, behind Trump, for standing up to the others on the stage like Ramaswamy and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, telling him to "bring it" when he criticized her time as that state's governor and raising the gasoline tax.
Charles Kim, a Newsmax general assignment writer, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years in reporting on news and politics.
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